Crisis-induced intermittency in Mexican dam flows

Abstract

Historical data from 4 different dams from Mexico have been analyzed in order to investigate on the nonlinear behavior. The dams are into 4 distinct hydrological basins, which are located at the north of Mexico where dry climate displays seasonal rain. The phase plane suggests the expanding and suddenly contractions of its orbits shows intermittency. The correlation dimension is derived by careful computing of two parameters: time delay and embedding dimensions. In addition, the scaling exponent is computed as well, which reinforces the appearance of intermittency. The computation of phase plane, correlation dimension, and scaling exponent allows us to find an underlying route to chaos from each of the dam time series. The Lyapunov exponents were employed in order to strengthen the conclusion about chaotic behavior. The results suggest that the intermittency (attributable to reliefs and reservoirs and their sudden effects) is the possible mechanisms to chaos at the nonlinear behavior of dam flows; however, stochastic nature deserves additional investigation.