DEM resolution dependencies of terrain attributes across a landscape
Authors:
Y. Deng a;
J. P. Wilson b;
B. O. Bauer c
| Affiliations: | a Department of Geography, Western Illinois University, Macomb, IL 61455-1390, USA |
| b Department of Geography, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0255, USA | |
| c Irving K. Barber School of Arts and Sciences, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, BC, Canada V1V 1V7 |
DOI:
10.1080/13658810600894364
Publication Frequency:
12 issues per year
Published in:
International Journal of Geographical Information Science,
Volume
21,
Issue
2
January
2007
, pages 187
- 213
Subjects:
Cartography;
Computer Science (General);
Earth Sciences;
Geographic Information Systems;
Location Based Services;
Navigation;
Systems & Computer Architecture of Databases;
Topography;
Transport Geography;
Formats available:
HTML
(English)
:
PDF
(English)
Previously published as:
International journal of geographical information systems
(0269-3798,
1362-3087)
until 1996
View Article:
View Article (PDF)
View Article (HTML)
Abstract
This paper documents resolution dependencies in terrain analysis and describes how they vary across landform location. Six terrain attributes were evaluated as a function of DEM resolution—slope, plan curvature, profile curvature, north-south slope orientation, east-west slope orientation, and topographic wetness index. The research highlights the effect of varying spatial resolution through a spatial sampling/resampling scheme while maintaining sets of indexed sample points at various resolutions. Tested sample points therefore coincide exactly between two directly compared resolutions in terms of their location and elevation value. An unsupervised landform classification procedure based on statistical clustering algorithms was employed to define landform classes in a reproducible manner. Correlation and regression analyses identified sensitive and consistent responses for each attribute as resolution was changed, although the tested terrain attributes responded in characteristically different ways. These responses displayed distinguishable patterns among various landform classes, a conclusion that was further verified by a series of two-sample, two-tailed t-tests.
|
| Keywords: Resolution effects; Terrain attributes; Landform classes |
| view references (42) : view citations |

Download Citation


CiteULike
Del.icio.us
BibSonomy
Connotea