Watershed Characteristics Extraction and Subsequent Terrain Analysis Based on Digital Elevation Model in Flat Region

Abstract

AbstractExtraction of watershed characteristics (stream position, stream length, watershed area, slope, and others) using a digital elevation model (DEM) is an important prerequisite of hydrologic analysis. Detecting these surface hydrologic features in flat regions using a DEM is a known problem. Using a known stream network to improve DEM performance has been done in a variety of methods; many methods can improve calculation of watershed area, stream position, and length, but there are strong impacts (e.g., slope) on subsequent terrain analysis from altering the DEM. To solve this problem, a new method, water depth gradient burning (WDGB), is proposed in this paper to extract watershed characteristics and subsequent terrain analysis in a flat region. In WDGB, the stream network map is used as an input dataset; a burning value at headwater, stream connection, and outlet nodes of the stream is defined, which is consistent with three parts: water depth correction, peak depth correction, and additional dept...