Scaling and Universality in River Flow Dynamics

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that river flow dynamics exhibit universal scaling behavior across different basin sizes and time scales, with a critical point where this scaling breaks down, revealing fundamental properties of river systems.

Contribution

It uncovers universal scaling laws and a critical horizon in river flow dynamics, linking hydrological processes to thermodynamic system behavior.

Findings

Flow increments can be rescaled to a universal non-Gaussian PDF.

Scaling breaks at a critical time horizon.

Scaling behavior is universal across different rivers.

Abstract

We investigate flow dynamics in rivers characterized by basin areas and daily mean discharge spanning different orders of magnitude. We show that the delayed increments evaluated at time scales ranging from days to months can be opportunely rescaled to the same non-Gaussian probability density function. Such a scaling breaks up above a certain critical horizon, where a behavior typical of thermodynamic systems at the critical point emerges. We finally show that both the scaling behavior and the break up of the scaling are universal features of river flow dynamics.