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Invariance and scaling properties in the distributions of contributing area and energy in drainage basins
Author(s) -
La Barbera P.,
Roth G.
Publication year - 1994
Publication title -
hydrological processes
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.222
H-Index - 161
eISSN - 1099-1085
pISSN - 0885-6087
DOI - 10.1002/hyp.3360080204
Subject(s) - fractal , drainage network , scaling , dissipation , drainage basin , probability distribution , statistical physics , drainage density , drainage , hydrology (agriculture) , channel (broadcasting) , scale invariance , mathematics , frequency distribution , environmental science , statistics , geology , geometry , physics , mathematical analysis , geography , geotechnical engineering , computer science , ecology , cartography , computer network , biology , thermodynamics
The cumulative probability distributions for stream order, stream length, contributing area, and energy dissipation per unit length of channel are derived, for an ordered drainage system, from Horton's laws of network composition. It is shown how these distributions can be related to the fractal nature of single rivers and river networks. Finally, it is shown that the structure proposed here for these probability distributions is able to fit the observed frequency distributions, and their deviations from straight lines in a log‐log plot.