Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Ghanbarian, Behzad
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.13581
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866912012395610112
author Ghanbarian, Behzad
author_facet Ghanbarian, Behzad
contents Understanding how annual peak flow, $Q_p$, relates to upstream basin area, $A$, and their scaling have been one of the challenges in surface hydrology. Although a power-law scaling relationship (i.e., $Q_p \propto A^α$) has been widely applied in the literature, it is purely empirical, and due to its empiricism the interpretation of its exponent, a, and its variations from one basin to another is not clear. In the literature, different values of a have been reported for various datasets and drainage basins of different areas. Invoking concepts of percolation theory as well as self-affinity, we derived universal and non-universal scaling laws to theoretically link $Q_p$ to $A$. In the universal scaling, we related the exponent $α$ to the fractal dimensionality of percolation, $D_x$. In the non-universal scaling, in addition to $D_x$, the exponent a was related to the Hurst exponent, $H$, characterizing the boundaries of the drainage basin. The $D_x$ depends on the dimensionality of the drainage system (e.g., two or three dimensions) and percolation class (e.g., random or invasion percolation). We demonstrated that the theoretical universal and non-universal bounds were in well agreement with experimental ranges of a reported in the literature. More importantly, our theoretical framework revealed that greater a values are theoretically expected when basins are more quasi two-dimensional, while smaller values when basins are mainly quasi three-dimensional. This is well consistent with the experimental data. We attributed it to the fact that small basins most probably display quasi-two-dimensional topography, while large basins quasi-three-dimensional one.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_13581
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Scaling mean annual peak flow scaling with upstream basin area
Ghanbarian, Behzad
Statistical Mechanics
Understanding how annual peak flow, $Q_p$, relates to upstream basin area, $A$, and their scaling have been one of the challenges in surface hydrology. Although a power-law scaling relationship (i.e., $Q_p \propto A^α$) has been widely applied in the literature, it is purely empirical, and due to its empiricism the interpretation of its exponent, a, and its variations from one basin to another is not clear. In the literature, different values of a have been reported for various datasets and drainage basins of different areas. Invoking concepts of percolation theory as well as self-affinity, we derived universal and non-universal scaling laws to theoretically link $Q_p$ to $A$. In the universal scaling, we related the exponent $α$ to the fractal dimensionality of percolation, $D_x$. In the non-universal scaling, in addition to $D_x$, the exponent a was related to the Hurst exponent, $H$, characterizing the boundaries of the drainage basin. The $D_x$ depends on the dimensionality of the drainage system (e.g., two or three dimensions) and percolation class (e.g., random or invasion percolation). We demonstrated that the theoretical universal and non-universal bounds were in well agreement with experimental ranges of a reported in the literature. More importantly, our theoretical framework revealed that greater a values are theoretically expected when basins are more quasi two-dimensional, while smaller values when basins are mainly quasi three-dimensional. This is well consistent with the experimental data. We attributed it to the fact that small basins most probably display quasi-two-dimensional topography, while large basins quasi-three-dimensional one.
title Scaling mean annual peak flow scaling with upstream basin area
topic Statistical Mechanics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.13581