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A cross‐scale comparison of drainage basin characteristics derived from digital elevation models
Author(s) -
Yin ZhiYong,
Wang Xinhao
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
earth surface processes and landforms
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.294
H-Index - 127
eISSN - 1096-9837
pISSN - 0197-9337
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1096-9837(199906)24:6<557::aid-esp6>3.0.co;2-y
Subject(s) - digital elevation model , structural basin , elevation (ballistics) , geology , terrain , drainage density , drainage basin , scale (ratio) , hydrology (agriculture) , drainage , geomorphology , remote sensing , cartography , geotechnical engineering , geography , geometry , ecology , mathematics , biology
The feasibility of using small‐scale digital elevation models (DEMs) to extract various drainage basin characteristics was evaluated by comparing basin parameters derived from the 1:250 000 DEMs with those from the 1:24 000 DEMs. Twenty basins ranging approximately from 150 km 2 to 1000 km 2 in West Virginia, a geologically complex region, were examined in this study. The basin parameters examined included those commonly used in hydrology and geomorphology such as elevation, slope, stream length, drainage density, relief ratio and ruggedness number. Our results suggested that the 1:250 000 DEMs can provide accurate estimates for elevation‐based and stream‐length‐based basin parameters, but not for slope‐based parameters. After examining the differences between the DEM‐derived basin parameters from the two different scales, we found that the performance of the 1:250 000 DEMs was not significantly influenced by basin size, while terrain complexity seems to be an important factor of accuracy of the estimated basin parameters. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.