Technical NoteVariability of stream flow discharge in response to self-similar random fields of temporal fluctuations in lateral inflow rate

- This article analyzes the variability in stream flow discharge.
- Self-similar random fields for lateral inflow processes are assumed.
- The fractal dimension of lateral inflow process has a positive influence on the variability in stream flow discharge.
- The variability in stream flow discharge is enhanced by the size of the time domain.

SummaryThis article presents the use of stochastic methodology for quantitative analysis of variability in stream flow discharge in response to fluctuations in lateral inflow rate, where the lateral inflow rate is considered to be the difference between rainfall and infiltration rates. In this work, we focus on the case where the temporal correlation structure of the fluctuations in the lateral inflow rate can be characterized by the statistics of random fractals. A closed-form expression quantifying the stream flow variability is therefore developed to investigate the influence of the fractal dimension of lateral inflow process and the size of time domain. It is found that the stream flow discharge variability increases with the time domain size, while the fractal dimension of lateral inflow process plays a role in the smoothness of fluctuations in stream flow discharge around the mean.