Globally Universal Fractal Pattern of Human Settlements in River Networks

Yu Fang, Serena Ceola, Kyungrock Paik, Gavan McGrath, P. Suresh C. Rao, Alberto Montanari, James W. Jawitz

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

34 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

River networks play a key role in the spatial organization of human settlements. Both river networks and human settlements have been found to exhibit regular self-similar patterns, but little is known about the generalized spatial patterns of human settlements embedded within river networks. Here based on night light data, we find a universal fractal structure at the global scale, with both robust Hortonian scaling relationships with the extent of human settlements and statistically significant power law scaling of the power spectra of human area functions. Globally, we find consistent patterns of power law preferential downstream clustering of human settlements across all six populated continents, typically up to 40% of the maximum flow length. This downstream clustering suggests an optimum distribution of humans in large river basins for trade, transport, and natural resource utilization but with attendant implications for human impacts on rivers. Recognition of such spatial patterns helps generalize assessments of human impacts on rivers, with direct implications for management of water quality and biological diversity in river networks.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1134-1145
Number of pages12
JournalEarth's Future
Volume6
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2018 Aug

Keywords

  • cities
  • power law
  • river basins

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Environmental Science(all)
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)

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