Comparison of Traditional Methods and Fractal Dimension Method in River Pattern Discrimination

The river patterns comprise of straight, meandering, braided and wandering river. They are formed and developed under the action of the long-term certain sediment-water assembly and the geological condition. There are many traditional methods such as single parameter including bend coefficient, width-depth ration and multipleparameters discrimination methods, to distinguish the river pattern. In recent year, the fractal dimension method based on the fractal theory is developed and popular in the river pattern discrimination. In this study, the discrimination results are compared between the traditional methods and the fractal dimension method in the lower Yellow river, with the field observed data during 1960-2008. There are some differences in the discrimination results either between the traditional methods and the fractal dimension method or among the traditional methods because of the different indicators. But the discrimination results indicate the similar developing trend of the river regime. It means that the fractal dimension method is suitable for the river pattern discrimination and its degree of accuracy is in the same level with the traditional discrimination method. However, the further study should be carried out to find the critical values for the river pattern discrimination in the fractal method.