Terrestrial surface-area increment: the effects of topography, DEM resolution, and algorithm

Abstract

The area increment of land surface compared with its projected area is an effect of topographic relief and is also a source of environmental variations. To examine the effects of topography and data resolution on surface area calculation, we calculated incremental area coefficients (IACs), based on two different algorithms, for a DEM of China at a series of spatial resolutions. Sampling the DEM with a regional network of 50 km × 50 km cell size, we explored the relationships among the two IACs and topographic features. Both IACs studied were exponential functions of resolution. At 30-m resolution, the IACs were 4.31 and 4.89% over China, respectively. The largest increment for a 50 km × 50 km cell was >45%. Between the IACs there was a linear relationship that varied with DEM resolution. Hierarchical variation partitioning revealed that the factors included contributed in a very similar percentage composition to the two IACs, mean slope (37.5 or 38.7%) and standard deviation of slope (22.3 or 19.6%) at local scale dominated the area increment, followed by regional elevation range. Data resolution contributed about 10%, while the deviation of slope exposure only had minimal (1.4 or 1.7%) impact on surface-area increment. For a specific type of geomorphology, a threshold resolution of DEM can be determined, below which the surface-area increment (i.e., IAC) is negligible. Our results provided the first comprehensive estimate of the contributions of the topographic features, DEM resolution, and algorithms for the surface-area increment, and indicated the scale-related properties and potential environmental consequences of topographic heterogeneity in various estimates of natural resources and ecosystem functions when area needs to be taken into account.