The Extraction of Topographic Patterns Based on Regular Grid DEMs

As a fundamental problem in terrain analysis, topographic patterns extraction has fund its role in many applications such as hydrographic analysis, mineral deposition, land erosion, and pollution diffusion analysis et al. A topographic patterns extraction approach based on regular grid Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) is presented. The approach fills depressions by using vector processes combined with traditional neighborhood raster processes, assigns flow direction over flat by applying a neighbor-grouping scan method. The approach is tested with a set of DEMs of different sizes, and the result proves that its mass data processing capability, extraction efficiency and result accuracy are better than existing methods.