https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-025-06618-0
Regular Article
Braiding as branching at the channel scale: a direct approach to network scaling
1
Department of Engineering for Innovation, EUropean Maritime Environmental Research (EUMER), University of Salento, Via per Monteroni, S.P.6, 73100, Lecce, Italy
2
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci 32, 20133, Milan, Italy
a
samuele.debartolo@unisalento.it
Received:
3
June
2025
Accepted:
4
July
2025
Published online:
17
July
2025
Braided channel networks (BCNs) represent highly dynamic fluvial systems characterized by multiple intertwined channels shaped by complex sediment transport and flow interactions. This study presents a novel framework to analyze the scaling properties of the braiding index , defined as the number of active wet channels along the river reach, by integrating branching process theory as reported by Harris (The Theory of Branching Processes, Dover Publications Inc, New York, 1989) and self-organized criticality concepts (Bak et al. in Phys Rev Lett 59:381–384, 1987 and Bak et al. in Phys. Rev. A 38:364–374, 1988) and as reported by Jensen (Self-Organized Criticality, Cambridge Lecture Notes in Physics, 1998). Unlike previous approaches, our methodology explicitly connects branching and braiding phenomena at the channel scale, capturing their coupled morphodynamics through stochastic modeling and power-law distributions. The proposed approach reveals the self-organizing behavior of BCNs, whereby local bifurcation and reconnection events give rise to scale-invariant spatial aggregation patterns within the channel network. This framework advances the theoretical understanding of fluvial network topology by linking microscope processes of sediment-bar formation and channel splitting to emergent macroscale geometries, providing new insights into the nonlinear and multiscale dynamics of braided rivers.
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© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Società Italiana di Fisica and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2025
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.