Modelling hydrological factors from DEM using GIS

Abstract

Hydrological modelling is a precondition for many scientific researches such as species distribution models, ecological models, agricultural suitability models, climatological models, hydrological models, flood and flash flood models, landslide models etc. Even the topographic control over many hydrological factors has also been studied. Over time different hydrological models have been developed and extensively used. Recently, these models have been used to prepare different types of conditional factors that are widely used in hazard modelling such as floods, flash floods, landslides etc. Quantitative analysis of the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) according to different models by engaging Geographic Information Systems (GIS) supports users to extract various types of information about landscapes where hydrological and topographic information are most important. Methods to prepare hydrological factors namely TWI, TRI, SPI, STI, TPI, stream density and distance to stream by processing DEM in GIS are discussed in this paper. These common hydrological factors are extensively used in many scientific research papers either for modelling or to measure their relationship with other environmental factors.•Hydrological factors have great importance in understanding the landscape and are widely used in scientific research, especially geo-environmental hazard mapping.•Physically based hydrological methods are engaged in ArcMap 10.5 software.•Commonly used hydrological factors are processed using freely available DEM and ArcMap 10.5 software.