Lithologic control on the multifractal spectrum of river networks

Quantifying patterns of complexity controlled by parent material at different spatial scales: from drainage network architecture at landscape scale to soil texture. A hydropedologic research conducted on wine regions of the Douro river basin

“…These results support the fact that in Gaudio et al (2006), the metamorphic and the plutonic rocks were grouped as the same source rock type. The reported values of drainage density for the plutonic and metamorphic rocks are lower than those presented by Gaudio et al (2006) for the plutonic and metamorphic areas of the Calabrian region (4.93-6.24 km/km 2 ).…”

“…The presented values of the fractal dimension of the drainage networks are clearly lower than those previously reported by Gaudio et al (2006) and Dombradi et al (2007) for areas having similar source rock types to the lithologic units studied here.…”

“…The reported values of drainage density for the plutonic and metamorphic rocks are lower than those presented by Gaudio et al (2006) for the plutonic and metamorphic areas of the Calabrian region (4.93-6.24 km/km 2 ). These differences could be based on the topographic differences between this part of Italy and our study area of Spain.…”

“…More recently, the influence of bedrock lithology on the configuration of flow systems has been reaffirmed (Gaudio et al, 2006;Bloomfield et al, 2011). Metrics to quantify this relationship are still being developed.…”

“…After the introduction of fractal geometry in the natural sciences (Mandelbrot, 1983), many researchers have investigated and confirmed the fractal and multifractal behavior of drainage networks (Rodríguez-Iturbe and Rinaldo, 1997;De Bartolo et al, 2000, 2004, 2006. Recent studies of the lithologic controls on the fractal and multifractal parameters of river networks (Gaudio et al, 2006;Dombradi et al, 2007) have analyzed areas, ranging from 100 to 10 000 km 2 , considered as lithologically homogeneous. In other word, the differences in scaling properties of drainage networks are interpreted using a single dominant lithology in each of those networks.…”