Fractals and morphometric measures: is there a relationship?

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Abstract

The potential role that fractal parameters may have as geomorphometric measures is investigated in a number of correlation analyses. The correlations between the fractal dimension (D) and the 24 traditional morphometric parameters used in this study are all very weak. This suggests that the fractal dimension is capturing some aspect of the surface roughness that is unique. In addition, correlations between the log-log ordinate intercept (gamma) of the variogram method and a number of geomorphometric parameters — especially those related to gradient — are consistently very strong. If the variogram method is used in the determination of the fractal dimension, both D and gamma should be reported. Together they comprise new parameters for geomorphometric analyses.

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