This is the image of Monte Bondone that I saw this morning from the class where I was testing my hydrology course students.
I realized that I could have asked them to comment the hydrologic status of the hillslope they were seeing (or the geomorphology indeed). Because in these days droughts it is hitting. The argument could be that one. So let take the Figure above and trace some lines as below.
If you follow line one, better seen in the initial figure, you can see mostly conifers and probably some beech tree. Their color is dark and they are in little valley-hollow. The plants there are not probably under stress. Same as along most of line 3 which follows in the first part a convex-divergent topography but probably in the first part there is still enough soil humidity (a closer check would be necessary though) while in the second part there is a concave, convex topography which is markedly green, and not apparently under stress yet. In the upper part where there are not trees, but bushes and grasses which are loosing their color and manifest the dryness of the top soil (we are in a "nose", however).
For paths 2 on the nose, trees are essentially absent, soil shallow and "bushes" dry as well. Path 4 has a little different topography. Only in the middle it seems dry, while in the other parts, soil should be deeper and soil moisture present enough to maintain the trees dark green. Soil deep but not too deep. Path 5 in fact is on a conoid (an alluvial fan) and trees there are markedly brown. Whilst a local check remains certainly necessary, the possible interpretation is that on the alluvial fan, composed mainly by gravel and alluvial detritus, the water infiltrates deeper and is not that available to plants root.
Please observe also that between 1 and 5 there is a furrow that during storms hosts a waterfall and there water is surely more present than elsewhere.
All is fictional obviously but I bet you cannot give a better interpretation.
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