Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 64 No.

2 June, 2012)
SURFACE DEFORMATION THROUGH FRACTAL ANALYSIS OF DEMBASED
SPATIAL DRAINAGE PATTERNS IN GILGIT BALTISTAN REGION (NORTHERN
PAKISTAN)
A. Masood, S. R. Ahmad, S. A. Mahmood
*
, J. Qureshi
*
, H. M. Rafique
**
and M.S. Khan
***
Institute of Geology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
*
Department of Space Science, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
**
School of Physical Sciences, Department of Physics, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan
***
Department of Geological Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan
Corresponding authors Email: amerpakistan@gmail.com
ABSTRACT: Gilgit Baltistan landscape is a unique tectonic geomorphological composition on the
planet earth. This region is a meeting point of four worlds famous high altitude mountain ranges
(Hindukush, Pamirs, Karakorum and Himalayas). This research examines the Fractal Dimension (FD)
analysis of geometrical spatial drainage patterns to highlight the deformed zone in the study area. One
of the objectives is to delineate zones vigorously affected by anomalies in the drainage pattern based
on FD, Lacunarity (LA) and Succolarity (SA) techniques. Two methods, Box Counting Method
(BCM) and Gliding Box Method (GBM) were used to generate GIS based maps for FD, LA and SA
for the entire drainage network in the region. This endeavor is based on the fact that the drainage
network is forced to undergo geometrical changes due to tectonic or lithological control. The low FD
values (closed to 1) in the region are indicative of linearized spatial drainage network due to
neotectonic control. Hence the low FD value of River Indus dictates tectonic control. However the FD
values do not represent the complex meandericity characteristics. A detailed textural investigation was
conducted to analyze linearized drainage network, heterogeneity and connectivity of the drainage
system and its relation to neotectonics. Landsat imagery was found useful to validate the linearization
of Indus River along Raikot fault. The FD, LA and SA maps are very useful to demarcate different
zones where the drainage network is being controlled by Gilgit Baltistan active structures and these
zones are vulnerable to deadly incidents. This study concludes that the fractal analysis is a vital tool to
pinpoint localized areas that can pose potential threats regarding topographic influence and finally
affecting infrastructure and human life.
Keywords: DEM, Drainage Systems, Fractal Dimension, Lacunarity, Succolarity, Neotectonics, Gilgit Baltistan.
INTRODUCTION
In broader sense, fractals are complex patterns
and forms found throughout the natural world. They are
self similar objects, e.g. drainage system, atmospheric
electricity branching patterns, clouds and the leaves of a
tree (see Figure 1). During the last few decades the fractal
complexity and its geometrical distribution have drawn a
great interest of researchers as a genuine model for
investigating natural phenomena. The multiple branching
patterns of a drainage system impart them an impression
of fractal objects (Mandelbrot, 1983). The combined
physical and geological processes are responsible for the
developments of fractal river networks (Dombradi et al.,
2007). The importance of non linear analysis of spatial
patterns is growing in the field of landscape ecology,
forestry, life sciences, food research, information
technology, peripheric system and tectonic morphology
(Dougherty and Henebry, 2002; Melo et al., 2006;
Dombradi et al., 2007; Gloaguen et al., 2007; Martinez et
al., 2007; Feagina et al., 2007; Dong, 2009, Valous et al.,
2010; Shahzad and Gloaguen, 2010; Mahmood and
Gloaguen, 2011).
The main purpose of these methods is to
pinpoint anomalies and diversities in the natural patterns
and their respective causes. In the context of
morphotectonic investigation such anomalies may appear
in the form of linearized, irregular drainage network and
disconnectivity due to physical and geological processes.
Previous studies suggest that the linearization of
individual stream or entire drainage network may be
analyzed to investigate active surface deformation
(Dombradi et al., 2007; Gloaguen et al., 2007; Shahzad
and Gloaguen, 2010; Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011).
Usually the linear analyses focus on the contributing
drainage area, stream length, channel slope, elevation
(secondary parameters) and entirely ignore the fractal
nature of the drainage system. A distinctive linear method
e.g., river profile analysis (wobus et al., 2006; Mahmood
and Gloaguen, 2011) implies the slope area correlation to
generate same results for different causative effect
(Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011). These effects can be
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reduced if we take spatial distribution of the drainage
network into account.
Fractal analysis is a bonus and powerful tool as
the spatial patterns with different space filling properties
and easily discriminate areas which may yield same
signatures using traditional linear analysis. The space
filling nature of the drainage network is a strong marker
of area vulnerable to active surface deformation. The
drainage systems adjust it selves to get linearized and
recognized as it interact neotectonic deformation
(Mahmood et al., 2009; Shahzad and Gloaguen, 2010;
Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011). This is why we use non
linear analysis (i.e. FD, LA and SA) to characterize the
irregularity of the drainage network and to calculate the
transformation from a dendiritic pattern into a linearized
and tectonically controlled one.
Figure 1. Self-similarity in nature, identical structures repeating over a wide range of length scales.
The LA is used to understand the textural
representation of the drainage systems by studying their
spatial distribution and size of the vacant spaces between
them. It is a useful tool to discriminate between different
textural patterns which have similar fractal dimension
value. The LA computes the deviation of a fractal object
(e.g. drainage network) from the translational invariance.
The SA is used to compute the orientation
regularity of the drainage network and to examine the
rotation of the spatial drainage pattern with the same
translational behavior. The SA computes percolation
capacity of the underline binary image (Melo and Conci,
2008; Shahzad and Gloaguen, 2010; Mahmood and
Gloaguen, 2011) of the spatial drainage pattern both
horizontally (left to right, L
2
R and right to left, R
2
L) as
well as vertically (top to bottom, T
2
B and bottom to top,
B
2
T). A particular region having low FD value like one
(1) means a region of extreme surface deformation with
more LA value. A low LA values mean less surface
deformation. The SA explains the style of rotation of
drainage network influenced by general patterns and the
rotation of the tectonic structures. Higher mean SA
values represent severely deformed zone.
All these three analyses permit the examination
of textural properties of drainage systems and are quite
helpful to access the delineation and intensity of surface
deformation (Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011). Drainage
pattern in Gilgit Baltistan (northern Pakistan) is a result
of spatially inconsistent neotectonics and erosinal
processes (Mahmood et al., 2009) and highlights regions
with variable vulnerability to active deformation
(Shahzad and Gloaguen, 2010; Mahmood and Gloaguen,
2011). The anomalous, jumbled and linearized spatial
drainage patterns give motivation for this research.
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Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 64 No. 2 June, 2012)
Study area: The Gilgit Baltistan (GB) is newly
establishing province in the northern area of Pakistan,
bordering India, China, and Afghanistan. In the North-
South (NS), The Gilgit-Baltisitan extends from
Hindukush Karakorum, with western Himalayas in the
south and the Pamirs in the extreme north (see Figure 2).
Abbreviations of fault names: AM, Alburz
Marmul, CbF, Central Badakhshan Fault, HF, Herat
Fault, CF, Chaman Fault; MoF, Mokar Fault, GzF,
Gardez Fault, KoF, Konar Fault, MBT, Main Boundary
Thrust; MFT, Main Frontal Thrust, MMT, Main Mantle
Thrust, SRT, Salt Range Thrust, MKT, Main Karakoram
Thrust, RF, Reshun Fault, SF, Sarobi Fault and ST,
Spinghar Thrust. (Source: Mahmood and Gloaguen,
2011).
Figure 2. Tectonic map of the Pakistan and neighbouring countries showing reported and newly confirmed faults.
The inset black shape file represents the province of Gilgit Baltistan. GPS velocity vectors (Red) with
respect to Eurasia fixed reference frame (Mohajder et al., 2010), whereas the purple vector is
transformed with respect to India fixed velocities (Wheeler et al., 2005; Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011).
All these important ranges rendezvous with each
other covering an area of about 43754 sq. km. Primarily
the GB, climatically, biologically and geographically
represents a land of trans-Himalayan character, where
monsoon rains are very rare. The GB holds twelve out of
thirty top peaks of the world with elevation over 7500
meter above sea level and this region is also called the
crown of Pakistan (i.e. second highest peak of the world
K2 or Chogori with elevation 8611 meters).
The geology of the GB is very ancient with
some oldest rocks forming the highly stratified
Precambrian peak groups (Zain, 2010) such as
Gasherbrum, Mashabrum, Baltoro, Rakaposhi, Ultar,
Diran, Broadpeak, Muztagh towers, Trango Towers,
Batura, Saltoro Kangri and many more. The mountain
ranges of GB from the head waters of major rivers
include the mighty Indus. The Shyok and Indus river flow
though occupied Kashmir into the GB, hundreds of their
tributaries joined them within the GB (see Figure 3).
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There are evidences that the active surface uplift of the
Himalayas and Karakorum has occurred during the
Quaternary and Holocene time. In the GB the record of
the Quaternary sediment is very well preserved in a series
of same interconnecting basins with valley fills more than
500 meters thick. These sediments consist of debry flow,
tills, fluvial, glacilo fluvial and lacuserint sediment. Most
of them have been severely deformed and Local River
terraces appear to be thrusted, folded and inverted.
Figure 3.Location of study area of Gilgit-Baltistan region (northern Pakistan) with Landsat 7, 4, 2 band
combination drapped over shaded relief map along with major rivers (Indus, Gilgit and Hunza), district
and provincial boundary.
This scenario clearly indicates an active tectonic
environment. The aim of this research is to discuss the
neotectonic frame work for the GB Pakistan and to
describe the active surface deformation based on Fractal
analysis of drainage network. This analysis also
facilitates to demarcate severely deformed zones due to
neotectonic and surface processes.
Datasets and methods: Drainage systems were extracted
from SRTM 90 m and binary image was prepared such
that the streams have a pixel value of 1 and rest of the
space is considered as 0 (Melo et al., 2006; Melo and
Conci, 2008; Shahzad and Gloaguen, 2010; Mahmood
and Gloaguen, 2011). In this research we believe that the
drainage network is strained and linearized as the
landscape is strongly controlled by neotectonic processes.
The FD method is a bit vague, as it simply shows the
amount of network complication. The FD does not
demonstrate the spatial pattern interpretation. This is why
the LA and SA techniques are also deployed to further
interpret the spatial drainage pattern recognition.
Fractal dimension and box counting method: Fractals
are entities that are scale invariant. For fractal patterns
this means they look similar at a greater variety of scales,
i.e. they are self similar. The drainage systems exhibit
irregularities with self-similar properties. FD is bonus to
quantify and destroy geomorphic metric features and its
usage has increased frequently in the last couple of
decades (Gloaguen, et al., 2007; Shahzad and Gloaguen,
2010; Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011). FD quantifies the
degree of irregularity or fragmentation of an object that
shows spatial patterns. This research computes fractal
dimension for three selected rivers (Indus, Hunza and
Gilgit River) and the whole drainage network of Gilgit
Baltistan region (northern Pakistan). For this purpose we
have used BCM that uses a moving box of variable size
on a binary image and counts the number of drainage
pixels within the box size applied (Mahmood and
Gloaguen, 2011). In each grid, the box sizes s and
relevant number of boxes N(s)are counted.
Computation of FD by BCM is calculated by using the
following formula.
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Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 64 No. 2 June, 2012)
( ) s
s N
FD
o s
/ 1 log
) ( log
lim

=
1
Where N(s) is number of boxes and s is the
length of the box size applied (see Figure 4). Slope of the
best fit line for the log plot of N(s) and 1/s is equal to FD.
The FD generated map was generated with color ramp so
that the regions with low FD values can be identified. In
general FD distribution map characterizes picture of
linearity of the drainage system. When FD tends to 1 it
means that the drainage patterns are highly linearized and
the region is highly vulnerable to surface deformation and
vice versa. Spatial distribution of FD can be divided into
three classes.
Figure 4. Calculation of Fractal Dimension (FD) by using Box Counting Method (BCM).
FD values less than 1.3 corresponds to severely
deformed zones while values of FD greater than 1.3 and
less than 1.6 corresponds to medium vulnerability.
Values greater than 1.6 corresponds to almost invariant
regions (see figure 5a)
Lacunarity and Gliding Box Method: The LA
computes the deviation of a fractal object from
translational invariance and can be used to understand the
textural representation of the spatial drainage pattern by
studying the spatial distributions and sizes of the vacant
spaces (Shahzad and Gloaguen, 2010; Mahmood and
Gloaguen, 2011). The LA discriminates different textural
patterns with similar FD values. For the binary images
the LA is computed by GBM method where a square box
of side r is glided along all possible directions of the
drainage texture. The total number of drainage pixels (i.e.
mass s) is calculated throughout the whole gliding
process. GBM is repeated with a growing box size i.e. r+i
(Plotonik et al., 1993). The gliding box should be of size
r=1 to some fraction of image (M). Resultantly a
frequency distribution of mass s with variable box size
r is obtained. This frequency distribution is transformed
into a probability distribution P(s, r). By normalizing
with the total number of boxes N(r) of size r. The
dimensionless lacunarity (r) is computed by first and
second moments of this distribution, as described the
following formula (Plotonik et al., 1993).
2
1
1
2
) , (
) , (
) (
(

= A

=
=
N
r
N
r
r s sP
r s P s
r
(2)
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Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 64 No. 2 June, 2012)
The LA distribution map was generated with a
moving window of 50 arc seconds by 50 arc seconds
(50x50) on a binary image of drainage network. In all
moving window operation, the underneath image of
5050 is taken as a sub image and the box size r = 1to
25 (<less than the half of the moving window length as
suggested by (Plotonik et al., (1993)) is used to calculate
LA values. This method gives us a distribution box sizes
verses LA values. Instead of LA distribution we need a
single LA value which can be used to demonstrate the
underline area and this single LA value should be
selected carefully. Why because it can be observed on the
log-log plots, it changes with the resolution of the dataset,
i.e. high values of the box sizes (e.g. r = 20, 25) will gave
low LA value and low values of r (e.g.1, 2, 3) will give
high LA value (Plotonik et al., 1993). To overcome less
mean error we select a middle value of box size log(r) = 1
and matching vale is obtained. This matching LA value
can be different from case to case depending on data
resolution and moving window size. We get a single LA
value at each pixel location. Finally, LA distribution map
is prepared by repeating all moving window sizes. A
fractal object is a translationaly invariant if its different
parts are similar. LA value is related to the vacant spaces
in a fractal object. A homogenous fractal object have low
LA value because all vacant spaces are almost similar,
while heterogeneous fractal show high LA value because
of vacant space. The high LA values correspond to
heterogonous drainage pattern i.e. seriously deformed
zone and vice versa. Low LA value is associated with a
low neotectonic activity (relatively stable region). LA
value < less than 1.5 correspond homogenous drainage
pattern and low vulnerability of surface deformation. LA
values from 1.5 to 2.5 shows medium vulnerability and
values > greater than 2.5 are related to heterogonous
spatial pattern, which means severe deformation.
Succolarity: penetration and orientation method: The
SA is a vital feature in spatial pattern recognition. It
computes penetration of a binary image that is how much
a given fluid can flow through the binary image
(Mandelbrot 1983; Melo and Conci, 2008). In the contest
of surface deformation the SA calculates the orientation
of the tectonics or geological structures. The succolarting
factors contain the string which permit percolation
(amount of interrelated pixels in the drainage texture).
These textures consist of two types of pixels i.e. vacant
gaps and impassable maps i.e. drainage (Shahzad and
Gloaguen, 2010; Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011). The
SA is computed along any possible flow direction (0
degree to 360 degree). To measure the mean SA value of
the drainage pattern we focus on four possible directions,
i.e. along 0
o
, 90
o
, 180
o
and 270
o
.The rotation image is
prepared at the required angle and SA is calculated as
follow
1) The binary image if flooded by checking all the
boundary pixels coming from T
2
B. If a pixel
represents vacant gaps on the image, it simply
means that a fluid can pass and flood this area. The
impenetrable mass black drainage lines are
treated as obstacle to the fluid. All the flood areas
have four neighbours for every pixel (top, bottom,
left and right) this process is recursively performed
on every pixel until the fluid encounter the
impenetrable mass.
2) The flooded area was analyzed using BCM. In this
method we place boxes of variable size k (k-1 to
n), where n is the number of possible factors of
division (Melo and Conci, 2008; Shahzad and
Gloaguen, 2010; Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011)
on the flooded image and the counting the number
of flooding pixels (NP (k)) within the box size k.
3) The sum of the multiplications of the (NP (k)) by the
pressure matrix PR (pc, k), where pc is the
position on x or y of the centroid of the box on the
scale of pressure applied for each box size is
calculated. The pressure matrix is dependent on
the position of the box to show the amount of
pressure correctly over it. The PR (pc, k) consist of
linearly growing weight from T
2
B. We divide the
value (NP (k)) x PR (pc, k) by PR (pc, k) to make
SA dimensionless like FD and LA. The SA is
calculated as:

=
=
=
n
k
n
k
k pc PR
k pc PR k NP
dir
1
1
) . (
) , ( ). (
) (
(3)
The (dir) represent the peculation direction. The
value of SA ranges from 0 to 1 and are classified as into
three categories i.e. (< less than 0.5 is low), (0.5 to 0.75 is
medium) and (greater than 0.75 is high SA value). The
drainage texture showing highly succolarating behavior
represents the remote location of impenetrable mass,
which means that the streams are at remote location. In a
neotectonic setting, high SA value corresponds to high
venerability to active deformation due to the high
percentage of vacant gaps and existence of lengthy
impenetrable masses (filaments). These filaments show
the presence of neotectonics in the region. The low SA
values in the regions mean that the geological processes
have stopped the development of lineaments and thus a
high drainage density dominates there.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
The drainage system in a tectonically
environment is effected by the change of the geometry
type due to most recent tectonic activities of both local
and regional faults. In the region of Gilgit Baltistan (GB)
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Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 64 No. 2 June, 2012)
in northern Pakistan the entire drainage system is
experiencing neotectonic influence. The network analyses
have great potential to record signals of tectonic and
erosinal process that contribute towards active surface
deformation. The spatial distribution of the drainage
patterns in the GB are of four types i.e., parallel,
rectangular, dendritic and disconnected drainage system.
These changes in geometrical transition and different
stages and development from one spatial pattern to other
is due to the neotectonic, climatic, geological and spatio
temporal phenomena. Parallel drainage pattern develop in
a highly steepened region and it is evidence they are
tectonically controlled. The relative uplift conditions in a
local region also results in high slope forcing the drainage
pattern to get linearzed which means tectonically uplift.
In a very complex tectonic regime, the spatial drainage
pattern takes the form of disconnected and rugged shape.
The drainage networks that follow the basic fractal
geometry and remain undisturbed are discriminated using
various fractal approaches e.g., FD, LA and SA.
The low FD values in GB suggest the presence
of controlling processes (relative tectonic uplift and
differential erosion) on the GB landscape evolution
(Mahmood and Gloaguen, 2011). If the FD values are
lower or close to 1, it simply means that the drainage
patterns is experiencing a transitional change from
natural mendicarity to more linearization due to more
neotectonic deformation. Using BCM, the FD distribution
was generated with the help of specially design Matlab
algorithm and Arc GIS tools. This FD map indicates
some anomalies in the spatial drainage pattern which
means very low FD (see Figure 5a). The FD map shows
that the most of the GB region is categorized by low to
very low FD values that means the region is highly
deformed and the regional tectonic are influencing and
controlling
Figure 5. (a) Distribution map of the study area of FD. The low values of FD correspond to highly deformed
areas. Ten sites with low values of FD are marked in the map.
local drainage. High fractal values are observed North
East (NE) of Skardu and Ghanche, where the drainage
pattern is not linear because the presence of permanent
glaciers and snow covers. These high values indicate the
spatial drainage pattern are more dendiritic and are
controlled mostly by the erosinal process (glacier
erosion) and have low vulnerability to active
deformation. Another high value can be observed west of
Hunza district because of dendiritic drainage and
presence of glacier and snow. The sudden variation in a
spatial drainage pattern results in variety of FD values.
Although with the computation of space filling nature of
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Pakistan Journal of Science (Vol. 64 No. 2 June, 2012)
drainage pattern, it is really hard to distinguish among the
spatial pattern with a dissimilar vacant gapes
dissemination. In a simple context the spatial drainage
pattern may exhibit similar FD values, but vacant gaps
among them are disseminated quite differently. Such
region which shows similar FD values can be further
analyzed and differentiated based on their deviation from
the translation invariance.
The LA is a complete tool for the regions
experiencing active deformation high LA values gives
information that the image is variant in the context of its
distribution of vacant spaces (see Figure 5b). The spatial
drainage pattern may be affected by different
mechanisms of space filling which are dependent upon
the active surface and subsurface active processes. The
LA is helpful to pinpoint the regions which are highly
steepened, uplifted and severely deformed consistently.
High LA values are also means high deviation from
translational behavior of spatial drainage patterns.
Figure 5 (b). LA distribution map of the study area where high LA values stand for the regions with high
susceptibility of surface deformation.
Generally, high to medium LA value are
observed in those regions which corresponds to high FD
values. The deviation from translation invariance of the
drainage network for different regions also indicates that
these regions have been influenced by the geological
processes at different times. In case of neotectonic
control, these regions show relatively high deviation from
those areas that are primarily controlled by erosinal
processes (Mahmood et al., 2008, 2009 and Mahmood
and Gloaguen, 2011). The GB regions are extremely
deformed as this region has undergone severe
deformation due to ongoing India Eurasia collision and
also due to the presence of earthquake events. The
defection of rivers and streams is another evidence of
recent fault activity and the geomorphic expressions also
indicate that this region have both thrust and strike slip
fault presence. Geologically, this is a region of
compression and transform fault zone containing a
diverse array of fault types and orientations. When
fractals of drainage work have similar values in some
regions the SA becomes an inevitable and
complementary tool to differentiate among similar FD
and LA values for the regions. The junction to two or
more than two stage at steep angles is usually described
by a localized region with strong tectonic control. In our
study area, we have an example of junction for Gilgit and
Indus River near NW Raikot Fault (RKF) and SE Stak
Fault shear zones that define a crustal scale, antiformal
pop-up structure that resemble as asymmetric upward
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moving, cork-like plug that began approximately 12 -10
Ma. When a spatial drainage patterns show the same style
of occupying gaps and translation invariance, then SA
computes the orientation of these patterns and explains
the further categorization. The purpose of SA distribution
map was to further distinguish the relative vulnerability
to active deformation in those regions which exhibits
similar low FD values (see Figure 5a) and maximum LA
values (see Figures 5b and 5c). In this particular situation,
the drainage texture is not discriminated based on vacant
gaps and translational invariance, but purely on the basis
of drainage texture orientation. Spatial distribution of SA
values for GB region is consistent with the orientation of
regional structure e.g. near NW orientated Raikot fault
(see Figure 6) it shows higher values. SA values also
classifies different zones in GB that show different
structural orientations, therefore extremely low SA values
delineate the approximate boundary of such structure.
Figure.5. (c) SA distribution map with high values highlighting the severely deformed regions with low drainage
density. The low values of SA indicate less deformed regions with high drainage density.
Figure 6. Map showing junction of Gilgit with Indus Rivers near Raikot fault. The black circle clearly indicates
the linearized Indus River due to neotectonic influence of the Raikot fault.
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Conclusion: The fractal measures (FD, LA and SA) are
valuable tools for the quantitative description of the
spatial drainage network, its evolution and stages of
landscape development in GB regions northern Pakistan.
The lower FD, higher LA and higher mean SA values
shows the spatial anomalies in the spatial drainage
patterns that suggests mostly the tectonic control in the
region and also higher vulnerability to active surface
deformation. All the three fractal analyses have great
potential to forecast the relative distribution of surface
deformation. The drainage patterns of the GB exhibit
linearzed, parallel and disconnected spatial patterns
corresponding to neotectonics. The tectonically uplifted
regions with great amount of variation in homogeneity
and orientation can easily be differentiated by fractal
dimension, lacunarity and succolarity analysis. The three
fractal analyses have concluded the GB region is
neotectonic active region in the context of India Eurasia
collision and has undergone severe surface deformation
in conjunction with deadly earthquakes.
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