A simple scheme for the evolution of a fluvial landscape in heterogeneous environments is critically examined to capture the essential mechanism responsible for the recurrent scale-free landforms in the river basin. It is shown that, regardless of boundary and initial conditions, geomorphological constraints in the form of quenched randomly pinned regions play a key role in the robust emergence of aggregation patterns with a scaling behavior in agreement with that of real river basins.

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.55.R4865