Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 822–825 (1993)Self-organized fractal river networksReceived 31 August 1992; published in the issue dated 8 February 1993 Optimal channel networks (OCN’s) obtained by minimizing the local and global rates of energy expenditure evolve automatically from arbitrary initial conditions to network configurations exhibiting fractal and multifractal statistics indistinguishable from those observed in nature. It is suggested that OCN’s are spatial models of self-organized criticality and that natural fractal structures like river networks may arise as a joint consequence of optimality and randomness. © 1993 The American Physical Society URL:
http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.822
DOI:
10.1103/PhysRevLett.70.822
PACS:
64.60.Ht, 68.70.+w, 92.40.Fb, 92.40.Gc
|
|
About | Terms and Conditions | Subscriptions | Search | Help
Use of the American Physical Society websites and journals implies that the user has read and agrees to our Terms and Conditions and any applicable Subscription Agreement. Physical Review®, Physical Review Letters®, Reviews of Modern Physics®, and Physical Review Special Topics® are trademarks of the American Physical Society.