Study on Terrain Profile and River Incision Based on Buffer Grid

Abstract

This paper proposed a new method for analyzing terrain profiles and river incisions. We used the buffer grids to determine the profiles. We selected Xianshuihe Basin as the study area. First, we performed a focus analysis on the buffer grid of the watershed, and determined the surface peaks and valley points. Then, we generated the peak line profile and valley line profile. Finally, we quantitatively calculated the depth of river incision based on the height difference between the two profiles. The result shows that the buffer grids can help us accurately analyze the terrain profiles and the river incisions. The incision depth of the river has a linear relationship with the ridge height of the marginal zone. Our research shows that the higher the surface uplift, the deeper the river incises.