Shoreline development index

Short description: Ratio indicating irregularity of a lake shoreline

Lakes in Saskatchewan with varying shoreline development indices (islands included): Peter Pond - 1.5, Churchill - 4.1, Ile a la Crosse - 8.2

The shoreline development index of a lake is the ratio of the length of the lake's shoreline to the circumference of a circle with the same area as the lake.[1][2][3] It is given in equation form as DL=L2πA, where DL is shoreline development, L is the length of the lake's shoreline, and A is the lake's area.[2] The length and area should be measured in the units (e.g., m and m2, or km and km2). The shoreline development index is DL=1 for perfectly circular lakes.[2] DL>1 for lakes with complex shapes.[2]

## Contents

* 1 Patterns
* 2 Application to lakes with islands
* 3 Limitations
* 4 References

## Patterns

Shoreline development correlates strongly with lake area, although this partly reflects the scale dependence of the index (see Limitations).[4][5][6] To some extent, the shoreline development index reflects the mode of origin for lakes. For example, volcanic crater lakes often have shoreline development index values near 1, where are fluvial oxbow lakes often have very high shoreline development index values.[7]

## Application to lakes with islands

The index can also include the length of island shoreline, modifying the formula to DL+Li=L+Li2πA, where Li is the combined length of the lake's islands' shoreline.[8]

## Limitations

Lake shorelines are fractal.[7] This means that measurements of shore length are longer when measured on high-resolution maps compared to low-resolution maps.[9][10] Therefore, a lake's shoreline development index will be greater when calculated based on shorelines measured from high-resolution maps compared to low-resolution maps.[10] Consequently, shoreline development index values cannot be compared for lakes with shorelines measured from maps with different scales.[9][11][12] Additionally, the shoreline development index cannot be compared for lakes with different surface areas because large lakes automatically have higher values than smaller lakes, even if they have the same planform shape.[10] Hence the shoreline development index can only be used to compare lakes with the same surface area that are also mapped at the same scale.[10] Making comparisons like this can create spurious correlations between the shoreline development index and ecological variables.[13]

## References

1. ↑ Aronow, Saul (1982). "Shoreline development ratio" (in en). Beaches and Coastal Geology. Encyclopedia of Earth Sciences Series. Springer US. pp. 754–755. doi:10.1007/0-387-30843-1_417. ISBN 978-0-387-30843-2.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Wetzel, Robert (2001). Limnology: Lake and River Ecosystems. Academic Press. ISBN 978-0-12-744760-5.
3. ↑ Hutchinson, G.E. (1957). A treatise on limnology. Wiley. ISBN 0-471-42570-2.
4. ↑ Koshinsky, Gordon D. (1970). "The Morphometry of Shield Lakes in Saskatchewan". Limnology and Oceanography 15 (5): 695–701. doi:10.4319/lo.1970.15.5.0695. ISSN 0024-3590. Bibcode: 1970LimOc..15..695K.
5. ↑ Verpoorter, Charles; Kutser, Tiit; Seekell, David A.; Tranvik, Lars J. (2014). "A global inventory of lakes based on high-resolution satellite imagery" (in en). Geophysical Research Letters 41 (18): 6396–6402. doi:10.1002/2014GL060641. ISSN 1944-8007. Bibcode: 2014GeoRL..41.6396V.
6. ↑ Seekell, David A.; Cael, B. B.; Byström, Pär (2022-04-05) (in EN). Problems with the shoreline development index - a widely used metric of lake shape. doi:10.1002/essoar.10510804.3. http://www.essoar.org/doi/10.1002/essoar.10510804.3. Retrieved 2022-05-09.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Seekell, D.; Cael, B.; Lindmark (2021). "The Fractal Scaling Relationship for River Inlets to Lakes". Geophysical Research Letters 48 (9). doi:10.1029/2021GL093366. Bibcode: 2021GeoRL..4893366S. https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1029/2021GL093366.
8. ↑ Rawson, D. S. (1960). "A Limnological Comparison of Twelve Large Lakes in Northern Saskatchewan". Limnology and Oceanography 5 (2): 195–211. doi:10.4319/lo.1960.5.2.0195. ISSN 0024-3590. Bibcode: 1960LimOc...5..195R.
9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Kent, Clement; Wong, Jonathan (1982-06-01). "An Index of Littoral Zone Complexity and Its Measurement". Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 39 (6): 847–853. doi:10.1139/f82-115. ISSN 0706-652X. https://cdnsciencepub.com/doi/abs/10.1139/f82-115.
10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 10.3 Seekell, D.; Cael, B.B.; Byström, P. (2022-05-09). "Problems with the shoreline development index ‐ a widely used metric of lake shape Research Letter for consideration by Geophysical Research Letters" (in en). Geophysical Research Letters. doi:10.1029/2022GL098499. ISSN 0094-8276. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1029/2022GL098499.
11. ↑ Håkanson, L. (2004). Lakes: Form and Function. Caldwell, New Jersey: Blackburn Press. ISBN 1-930665-24-5.
12. ↑ Seekell, D.; Cael, B.; Norman, S.; Byström, P. (2021). "Patterns and variation of littoral habitat size among lakes" (in en). Geophysical Research Letters 48 (20). doi:10.1029/2021GL095046. ISSN 1944-8007. Bibcode: 2021GeoRL..4895046S.
13. ↑ Seekell, D.; Cael, B. B. (2024-05-01). "Bias in the shoreline development index: Ecological implications illustrated with an analysis of littoral-pelagic habitat coupling". Limnologica 106. doi:10.1016/j.limno.2024.126173. ISSN 0075-9511. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0075951124000264.

0.00

(0 votes)

Original source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoreline development index. Read more

|

Retrieved from "https://handwiki.org/wiki/index.php?title=Earth:Shoreline_development_index&oldid=3994434"