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Abstract

Topography is the most important component of the geographical shell, one of the main elements of geosystems, and the framework of a landscape. geomorphometry is a science, the subject of which is modeling and analyzing the topography and the relationships between topography and other components of geosystems. Currently, the apparatus of geomorphometry is widely used to solve various multi-scale problems of the Earth sciences. As part of the RFBR competition “Expansion”, we present an analytical review of the development of theory, methods, and applications of geomorphometry for the period of 2016–2021. For the analysis, we used a sample of 485 of the strongest and most original papers published in international journals belonging to the JCR Web of Science Core Collection quartile I and II (Q1–Q2), as well as monographs from leading international publishers. We analyze factors caused a progress in geomorphometry in recent years. These include widespread use of unmanned aerial survey and digital photogrammetry, development of tools and methods for survey of submarine topography, emergence of new publicly available digital elevation models (DEMs), development of new methods of DEM preprocessing for their filtering and noise suppression, development of methods of two-dimensional and three-dimensional visualization of DEMs, introduction of machine learning techniques, etc. We consider some aspects of the geomorphometric theory developed in 2016–2021. In particular, a new classification of morphometric values is presented. We discuss new computational methods for calculating morphometric models from DEM, as well as the problems facing the developers and users of such methods. We consider application of geomorphometry for solving multiscale problems of geomorphology, hydrology, soil science, geology, glaciology, speleology, plant science and forestry, zoogeography, oceanology, planetology, landslide studies, remote sensing, urban studies, and archaeology.