Frequency Distributions of Stream Link Lengths and the Development of Channel Networks

A number of hypotheses concerning the evolution of stream channel networks have been advanced, with the object of accounting for the observed properties of distributions of channel link lengths. This paper comments on the validity of earlier investigations, and on current hypotheses of network growth. Data from a time-controlled series of drainage networks and the results of a computer simulation experiment are presented and employed to generate a new hypothesis to account for the observed distributions of link lengths. This hypothesis suggests that the structure of channel networks may be accounted for without the need to invoke the major post-bifurcation channel "adjustments" of previous models.