Study the Space –Time Variations of Indus River Flow Propagation

Abstract

River flow is the most important geophysical process of the earth and its ecosystem. Being very unpredictable in nature, at several times its ensemble flow propagation along the network becomes hazardous flood, that causes enormous damage and loss. Pakistan is an agricultural country with one of the world’s largest Indus River system. The system undergoes great climatic, strong seasonal and inter-annual variability dominated by both monsoon and snow-glacier dynamics of the Himalayan and Karakoram regions. A better understanding of the variability may provide insight into the problems associated with unpredictable variations in river flow and their propagation. This paper is an attempt to enhance the current knowledge of the Indus River flow dynamics along the network. For this purpose linear and nonlinear methods of propagation analysis of the mean 10 daily river flow (TDF) are utilised. The linear and nonlinear schemes employ cross-correlation and the normalized average of cross-mutual information (MI) method respectively. The overall dominant mechanism of the system shows a linear behaviour, however, some stations demonstrate nonlinear propagation in the network. The results of these analyses may also provide the viability to study the behaviour of regional and global climatic parameters related to the type of information propagated.