Shapes of river networks
- Yi, Robert S. ORCID Lorenz Center, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Arredondo, Álvaro Lorenz Center, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Stansifer, Eric Lorenz Center, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Seybold, Hansjörg Department of Environmental Systems Sciences, ETH Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Rothman, Daniel H. Lorenz Center, Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA, USA
- 2018-7-18
Published in:
- Proceedings of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences. - The Royal Society. - 2018, vol. 474, no. 2215, p. 20180081
English
River network scaling laws describe how their shape varies with their size. However, the regional variation of this size-dependence remains poorly understood. Here we show that river network scaling laws vary systematically with the climatic aridity index. We find that arid basins do not change their proportions with size, while humid basins do. To explore why, we study an aspect ratio
L
⊥
/
L
∥
between basin width
L
⊥
and basin length
L
∥
. We find that the aspect ratio exhibits a dependence on climate and argue that this can be understood as a structural consequence of the confluence angle. We then find that, in humid basins, the aspect ratio decreases with basin size, which we attribute to a common hydrogeological hierarchy. Our results offer an explanation of the variability in network scaling exponents and suggest that the absence of self-similarity in humid basins can be understood as a morphological expression of subsurface processes.
River network scaling laws describe how their shape varies with their size. However, the regional variation of this size-dependence remains poorly understood. Here we show that river network scaling laws vary systematically with the climatic aridity index. We find that arid basins do not change their proportions with size, while humid basins do. To explore why, we study an aspect ratio
/
between basin width
and basin length
. We find that the aspect ratio exhibits a dependence on climate and argue that this can be understood as a structural consequence of the confluence angle. We then find that, in humid basins, the aspect ratio decreases with basin size, which we attribute to a common hydrogeological hierarchy. Our results offer an explanation of the variability in network scaling exponents and suggest that the absence of self-similarity in humid basins can be understood as a morphological expression of subsurface processes.
- Language
-
- English
- Open access status
- bronze
- Identifiers
-
- DOI 10.1098/rspa.2018.0081
- ISSN 1364-5021
- Persistent URL
- https://sonar.ch/global/documents/283722
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