Scaling Effect of Lake Distribution on Power Law by Coastal Area Simulation

Abstract

Studies of the size and frequency distribution of lakes have shown an interesting trend following the power law. Most of these studies have been done to explain the importance of small lakes using remote sensing images. However, it has not been possible to confirm whether power law is established for small sizes of lakes due to spatial resolutions of satellite images. This issue was evaluated using fractal-based coastal area simulation. The process of forming the lake through the events of rainfall and evaporation was applied and the relationship between the size and frequency distribution of the lake was verified by computer simulation to examine if it could be applied to smaller lakes. As a result, computer simulations showed that the distribution of lake size vs cumulative frequency follows the power law regardless of lake size in other studies.