Structure of surface-water connectivity within a lowland river floodplain

Keywords: river, connectivity, hydrology, geomorphology, lowland
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 6

Abstract

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.