Waterbots

Authors: Peter K Haff

Publish Date: 2001

Volume: , Issue: , Pages: 239-275

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Abstract

Waterbots are elements of a landscape evolution model based on discrete units of runoff that are able to pick up and deposit sediment The waterbot model is a cellular automaton model Toffoli and Margolus 1989 that captures much of the essence of more detailed hydrologic models Waterbots are similar to the precipitons introduced by Chase Chase 1992 in his discrete model of runoff erosion In the precipiton model individual precipitons were viewed as mimicking the effects of single storms The term waterbot is used here to avoid a suggestion that a discrete waterbot “particle” necessarily represents the result of a particular precipitation event Instead a waterbot represents an abstract unit of runoff that can reflect the result of either many storms or of a single storm Waterbots represent one of potentially several species of geobots or geologic agents that might be deployed on a digital landscape to handle a range of geomorphic chores To illustrate the application of the model erosion and deposition processes are examined in the Black Mountains Death Valley California Figure 1

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