EGU23-17415, updated on 26 Feb 2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17415
EGU General Assembly 2023
© Author(s) 2023. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Roughly scale-free network of surface-water connections within a lowland river landscape

Inci Güneralp1, Cesar R. Castillo2, and Billy Hales1
Inci Güneralp et al.
  • 1Geography, Texas A&M University, USA
  • 2Sandia National Laboratories, USA

Lowland rivers regularly flood and create complex inundation patterns where energy and matter are exchanged between landscape patches over a dynamic network of surface‐water connections. Scale‐freeness of networks for phenomena in many disciplines have been studied with mixed results. Here we present the first documented example of a (roughly) scale‐free network of surface‐water connections within a river‐floodplain landscape. We accomplish this by simulating inundation maps across the historical range of flows for the Mission River in Texas. We then analyze the topology of the surface‐water connections between the river and soil and vegetation habitat patch types. Results show that surface‐water connectivity is scale‐free for ≥64% of simulated flows (≥70% for flows with floodplain inundation). Moreover, the dynamic surface‐water connections meet five of the six conceptual criteria of scale‐free networks. Our findings indicate that river‐floodplain landscapes are self‐organizing toward scale‐free surface‐water connections among patches that optimizes energy and matter exchange.

How to cite: Güneralp, I., Castillo, C. R., and Hales, B.: Roughly scale-free network of surface-water connections within a lowland river landscape, EGU General Assembly 2023, Vienna, Austria, 24–28 Apr 2023, EGU23-17415, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu23-17415, 2023.