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Use of Fractals to Estimate Environmental Dilution Factors in River Basins
Author(s) -
Seiler Fritz A.
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
risk analysis
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.972
H-Index - 130
eISSN - 1539-6924
pISSN - 0272-4332
DOI - 10.1111/j.1539-6924.1986.tb00190.x
Subject(s) - dilution , effluent , pollutant , drainage basin , environmental science , watershed , hydrology (agriculture) , environmental engineering , computer science , geology , geography , ecology , geotechnical engineering , cartography , physics , machine learning , biology , thermodynamics
Every source of liquid pollutants lies somewhere on a watershed. Leachwaters derived from water percolating through solid waste deposits and liquid effluents from industry are diluted on their way down the river until they interact with man or particular environmental systems. This environmental dilution of potentially toxic effluents has to be estimated in assessing health and environmental risks. The problem for the risk assessor is to find an appropriate mathematical model. In this paper, the recent mathematical theory of fractal objects is used to demonstrate that, within certain limits, rivers of all lengths and their river basins are self‐similar. Simple general relations exist, therefore, between the length and drainage area of rivers both large and small. These relations and a few additional assumptions are then used to derive an improved set of models for estimating environmental dilution of some pollutants.