Are stream flow data sets fractal? Implication for hydrological modeling

River flow is a key flux in climate system and considered as being the combines result pf all the climatological and geographical factors that operate in a drainage basin. It occurs over a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. The purpose of this study is to explore whether or not streamflow data sets are fractal and then investigate the impact of data temporal resolution and time extent on fractal dimension. For this purpose, a long time series of 15-minute and daily flows of a rivers in Colorado, USA were subjected to extensive fractal analysis using three conventional methods, namely ; variation method, box-counting and re-scale methods. among various methods, variation method provided the most consistent results.