Analyzing the streamflow-sediment links of three major river basins in India using multifractal theory

Abstract

This study investigated the cross-correlation between daily streamflow and total suspended sediment (TSS) data of 65 gauging stations located in three major river basins in a multifractal perspective. The novel Multifractal Cross Correlation Analysis (MFCCA) method of cross correlation studies is used to analyze the streamflow-sediment links of Krishna, Godavari and Mahanadi basins. The results showed that for the records of a particular station, the joint persistence of streamflow and TSS is approximately the mean of the persistence of individual series. The streamflow displayed higher persistence than TSS in 60 % of the stations while in majority of stations of Godavari basin the trend was opposite. The annual cross correlation is higher than overall cross correlation in majority of stations but at these time scales strength of their association differs with river basin.