Digital Elevation Model

(iv) Estimation of the Topographic

Attributes from the DEM

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

 Objectives
2

 Estimation of the topographic attributes from raster DEM

 Slope

 Aspect

 Flow direction

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

 Introduction
3

Terrain attributes from DEM

Primary attributes Secondary attributes

Derived directly from the DEM Derived using one or more of
the primary attributes

Example
Example
Slope
Topographic wetness
Aspect
- a function of the upslope
Flow-path length contributing area, soil transmissivity
Upslope contributing area and the slope
Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc
Terrain Attributes from Gridded DEM
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 Gridded DEM : Surface is represented using a matrix of regularly spaced grids

 Grids carry the elevation information

 Most of the terrain analysis algorithms using the gridded DEM assume uniform
spacing of the grids throughout the DEM.

 Topographic attributes are derived based on the changes in the surface

elevation with respect to the distance.

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

 1.Estimation of Slope from DEM
5
 Slope :

Rate of change of elevation, expressed

as gradient (in %) or in degrees.

 Using the finite difference approach

Slope in any direction = First derivative of the elevation in that direction

 hx hy
Slope in the x direction S x  Slope in the y direction S y 
x y

 hy 
2 2
 h 
 In general, slope at any point S   x    

 x    y 
Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc
Estimation of Slope..
6

Example 1. Using 4-direction algorithm

• Consider the 4 cardinal neighbors

• Slope of grid 9

 h1  h5   h3  h 7 
2 2

S9     
 2a   2a 
h1, h2, h3… are the heights • The method generally gives
reasonably accurate values of the
slope

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

Estimation of Slope..
7

Example 2. Deterministic eight neighborhood (D8) algorithm

 Calculates the rate of change of elevation in the
steepest down slope direction

 The 8 nearest neighbors are considered

 h9  h1 h9  h2 h9  h8 
S 9, D8 a lg otithm  Max  , , ,
h1, h2, h3… are the heights  L L L 

L = a for cardinal neighbors, √2 a for diagonal neighbors

 This approach is generally preferred when the channel

slope is required.

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

 Selection of DEM Grid Size
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 Value of the topographic index varies with DEM resolution

 Local slope calculated from a gridded DEM decreases with increase in the DEM grid size.

 As the grid size increases, the grids represent larger areas

 Spatial averages of the elevation for such larger areas result in smoother surface
(Wolock and Price 1994).

Grid size increases

Slope decreases

 The selection of DEM grid size is important to get appropriate slope map, particularly in
fields like erosion studies, where the processes are largely related to the slope

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

 2. Estimation of Slope Aspect
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 Aspect is the orientation of the line of steepest descent

 Elevation of the nearest neighbors are evaluated to find the steepest descent direction

 Aspect is normally measured clockwise from the north, and is expressed in degrees

 Varies from 0-360 degrees.

Aspect values in different directions

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

 Estimation of Flow Direction
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 Flow vector algorithms scan each cell of the modified DEM and determine the direction of
the steepest downward slope to an adjacent cell.

 Deterministic Eight-Neighbors Algorithm(D8 Algorithm)

 Most GIS implementations use the D8 algorithm to determine flow path.

 Finds the elevation differences between the given grid cell and its eight neighboring
cells, hence the name D8 algorithm.

 A flow vector indicating the steepest slope is assigned to one of the 8 neighboring
cells
 If more than one steepest downward slope is encountered, flow direction is assigned arbitrarily
towards the first cell encountered in a row by row scan of the adjacent cells.

 If the adjacent cell is undefined (i.e. missing elevation value or outside the DEM grid), the
downward slope to that cell is assumed to be steeper than that to any other adjacent cell

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

Flow Direction…
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Example (1) Consider the cell (2)
3 neighbors having lower elevation
Or
3 possible flow direction

Size of the cells = 1 unit

(3) Steepest descent

(4) Flow direction

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

Flow Direction…
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 Using the eight direction pour point algorithm, numerical values are assigned to the flow
directions

 The general flow direction code or the eight-direction pour point model

 The 8 flow directions are assigned numerical values

 2x series is used, where x= 0, 1,2 ….etc
 Varies from 0 to 128

For the example case

Assigned flow direction Numeric al values for the flow directions

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

Flow Direction…
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 Disadvantages of the eight-direction pour point algorithm:

 It limits the direction of flow between two adjacent nodes to only eight possibilities.

 There is discrepancy between the lengths of the drainages as calculated by the

method

 The method fails to capture parallel flow lines

 Other flow direction algorithms

 Use of two outflow paths (Tarboton, 1997)

 Partitioning of the flow into all downslopes (Quinn et al., 1991)

 Use of a stochastic approach to determine the gradient (Fairfield and Leymarie, 1991)

Remote Sensing: M7L4 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc

 Thank You

Remote Sensing: M7L4 14 D. Nagesh Kumar, IISc