Continuum Model for River Networks
Condensed Matter
2009-10-28 v1
Abstract
The effects of erosion, avalanching and random precipitation are captured in a simple stochastic partial differential equation for modelling the evolution of river networks. Our model leads to a self-organized structured landscape and to abstraction and piracy of the smaller tributaries as the evolution proceeds. An algebraic distribution of the average basin areas and a power law relationship between the drainage basin area and the river length are found.
Cite
@article{arxiv.cond-mat/9505138,
title = {Continuum Model for River Networks},
author = {Achille Giacometti and Amos Maritan and Jayanth R. Banavar},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:cond-mat/9505138},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
9 pages, Revtex 3.0, 7 figures in compressed format using uufiles command, to appear in Phys. Rev. Lett., for an hard copy or problems e-mail to [email protected]