Synopses & Reviews
This book provides a theoretical basis to the arrangement of river basins and networks.
Review
"The book is factual, hard-hitting and written in an extremely interesting manner. The presentation is, on the whole, impartial and comprehensive and as such can be an invaluable reference for everybody-from students to scientists interested in a new scientific approach to describe nature." Pawel Rowinski, Pageoph"...highly recommended to anyone who has an interest in theoretical geomorphology from the modern point of view. Cambridge University Press has done its usual excellent job of production." Donald L. Turcotte, EOS"I am really impressed by the extremely high quality of the book and in particular with the careful blending of theory, modeling, and observations that is evident every where. I always admired research that has such flavor, and here we have a book that is full of it." Elfatih Eltahir, Assistant Professor, MIT"It is not often that we see a subject on applied science being treated so thoroughly and so clearly. Rodriguez-Iturbe and Rinaldo have produced a book that will enlighten and inspire all those interested in theoretical hydrology or the development of landscapes for a long time to come." Anastasios A. Tsonis, Science"This book is one of the few that attempt to provide an answer to the question of what will make a natural phenomenon fractal...Rodriguez-Iturbe and Rinaldo have done an exceptional job relating the fractal nature of river networks and landscapes to the optimality principle and self-organized criticality." Anastasios A. Tsonis, Science"The beauty of this book is that it is basically self contained. The chapters have a very logical progressive sequence, which allows the reader to follow the ideas clearly." Anastasios A. Tsonis, Science"The writing is clear, and the introductory material is provided in a straight forward manner....the book is written in a clear and fluent manner and should render the topic accessible not only to members of the two research communities addressed--hydrologists and physicists--but also to graduate students intending to work in this field. It may also be useful as a source of introductory material and examples for a rather specialized course on complex systems. Physicists working on such phenomena, or wishing to enter the field, will find this book interesting and useful." Ohad Levy, Physics today
Review
"...rigorous and engaging...However one looks at the subject, Fractal River Basins is an important book...Geomorphologists and physicists alike will find the book thought-provoking, and I highly recommend this stimulating work." Nature
Synopsis
Hydrologists and geomorphologists will find that this book opens up the important topic of the fractal structure of networks at an accessible level. Mathematicians and physicists will appreciate the application of the theory to this aspect of the earth sciences. With many real-world examples, Fractal River Basins will be useful to researchers and students.
Synopsis
This paperback of a successful book considers river basins and drainage networks in the light of their scaling and multi-scaling properties, and the dynamics responsible for their development. Hydrologists and geomorphologists will find that this book opens up the important topic of the fractal structure of networks at an accessible level. Mathematicians and physicists will appreciate the application of the theory to this aspect of the earth sciences. Comprehensive, well illustrated and with many real-world examples, Fractal River Basins will be useful to researchers and students alike. The hardback received many excellent reviews.
Table of Contents
1. A view of river basins; 2. Fractal characteristics of river basins; 3. Multifractal characteristics of river basins; 4. Optimal channel networks: minimum energy and fractal structures; 5. Self-organized fractal river networks; 6. On landscape self-organization; 7. Geomorphological hydrologic response; 8. References.