Geomorphology
Raoof Mostafazadeh; Fariba Esfandyari Darabad; Ahmad Naseri; Ahmad Abyat; Maryam Adhami
Abstract
Fractal dimension is a powerful and important index that reflects the physical and morphological characteristics of rivers and has a close relationship with geometric features of rivers. The fractal pattern was used to investigate the sinuosity of the Gharehsou River in Ardabil Province, using the box-counting ...
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Fractal dimension is a powerful and important index that reflects the physical and morphological characteristics of rivers and has a close relationship with geometric features of rivers. The fractal pattern was used to investigate the sinuosity of the Gharehsou River in Ardabil Province, using the box-counting method. The results show that the fractal dimension of the Gharehsou River varies between 2.068 and 2.186. The minimum fractal dimension is in the first category of meanders with lower areas of tangent circle, and the maximum number of circles falls into the eighth category (having high areas of tangent circle). Based on the correlation between the number and area of tangent circles (0.71 to 0.84), it can be said that the river reaches studied follow a fractal and self-similar pattern. The fractal dimension values in the Anzab village-Taleb Qeshlaqi village reach were calculated to be 2.23, indicating a higher level of self-similarity, which is related with the naturalness of this river reach, which is located within a plain area, and the river has undergone more evolution. On the other hand, in the Taleb Qeshlaqi village-Sabalān Dam reach, the fractal dimension value was found to be 1.85, which may be related to the river traversing steeper paths, limiting its meander development and making the fractal pattern less observable. Human interventions in the river's course, as well as the river's passage through agricultural lands in some cases, have led to changes in the width and depth of the river and restrictions on meander expansion.
Azra Khosravi; Adel Sepehr; Zahra Abdollahzadeh
Volume 3, Issue 9 , March 2017, , Pages 1-20
Abstract
Fractal dimension is a parameter used to indicate the complexity of data. The analysis of fractal dimension of river networks and their basins facilitate the perdition of their behavior in the future. This paper focuses on the relationship between fractal dimensions of basins and the morphometric characteristics ...
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Fractal dimension is a parameter used to indicate the complexity of data. The analysis of fractal dimension of river networks and their basins facilitate the perdition of their behavior in the future. This paper focuses on the relationship between fractal dimensions of basins and the morphometric characteristics of drainage networks. Therefore, through an analysis of fractal dimension of basins and its comparison with morphometric characteristics, the fractal behavior of these basins are investigated. At the first, six rivers including Torough, Golestan, Esjil, Golmakan, Frizi and Akhlamad located in the northern slopes of Binaloud were selected. The boundaries of basins were determined using aerial photos, imagery data, and topographic maps. Then, hydromorphometric and hydrologic parameters such as length of each river network, the number of networks, basin area, the main channel length of each basin and their fractal dimensions were measured. Results showed the basin of Esjil and Torough Rivers indicate highest and lowest fractal dimension respectively. The results also indicated a significant and meaningful relationship between fractal dimensions of basins, drainage networks, forms, final patterns and morphometric characteristics. Moreover, we found an inverse relationship between the fractal dimension and the area of basins under study. Accordingly, Esjil basin with the lowest area (226.79 km) shows the highest river bifurcation fractal dimension of (3.21) while Torogh basin with the greatest basin area (2370.4 km) indicates the lowest river bifurcation fractal dimension (1.74). In this context, a positive relationship was observed between morphometric parameters and fractal dimension of river bifurcation and drainage density, so that the greatest correlation coefficient was found between the fractal dimension of river bifurcation and the shape of the basin (0.939). Furthermore, the highest correlation was between the fractal dimension of drainage density and bifurcation ratio (0.937).
