Multifractal Description of Streamflow and Suspended Sediment Concentration Data from Indian River Basins

TL;DR

This study applies multifractal analysis to Indian river basin streamflow and sediment data, revealing complex persistence patterns and correlations, with implications for understanding hydrological and sediment transport dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces the use of Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis and Multifractal Cross Correlation Analysis to study streamflow and sediment data in Indian river basins, highlighting their multifractal nature and interrelations.

Findings

Streamflow data exhibit multifractality and long-term persistence.

Godavari basin shows strongest multifractality and complexity.

Joint persistence of streamflow and sediments varies across stations.

Abstract

This study investigates the multifractality of streamflow data of 192 stations located in 13 river basins in India using the Multifractal Detrended Fluctuation Analysis (MF-DFA). The streamflow datasets of different river basins displayed multifractality and long term persistence with a mean exponent of 0.585. The streamflow records of Krishna basin displayed least persistence and that of Godavari basin displayed strongest multifractality and complexity. Subsequently, the streamflow-sediment links of five major river basins are evaluated using the novel Multifractal Cross Correlation Analysis (MFCCA) method of cross correlation studies. The results showed that the joint persistence of streamflow and total suspended sediments (TSS) is approximately the mean of the persistence of individual series. The streamflow displayed higher persistence than TSS in 60 % of the stations while in majority of stations of Godavari basin the trend was opposite. The annual cross correlation is higher than seasonal cross correlation in majority of stations but at these time scales strength of their association differs with river basin.