Parallel Flow-Direction and Contributing Area Calculation for Hydrology Analysis in Digital Elevation Models

This paper introduces a set of parallel algorithms to determine the hydrological flow direction and contributing area of each cell in a digital elevation model (DEM) using cluster computers in an MPI programming model. DEMs are partitioned across processes relevant to the physical layout of the terrain such that processes with adjacent ranks calculate flow direction and contributing areas for physically adjacent partitions of the DEM. The contributing area algorithm makes use of a queue to order the consideration of cells such that each cell is visited only once for calculation and cross-partition calculations are handled in an efficient and order-independent manner. This algorithm replaces a serial recursive algorithm included as part of the TauDEM hydrology analysis package.

[1]  Jeffrey Scott Vitter,et al.  Efficient Flow Computation on Massive Grid Terrain Datasets , 2003, GeoInformatica.

[2]  R. Grayson,et al.  On the computation of the quasi‐dynamic wetness index with multiple‐flow‐direction algorithms , 2003 .

[3]  D. Tarboton.  A new method for the determination of flow directions and upslope areas in grid digital elevation models , 1997 .

[4]  D. Tarboton,et al.  A sediment transport model for incision of gullies on steep topography , 2003 .

[5]  K. Beven,et al.  Terrain analysis and distributed modelling in hydrology , 1993 .

[6]  D. Maidment.  Arc hydro : GIS for water resources , 2002 .

[7]  John P. Wilson,et al.  Terrain analysis : principles and applications , 2000 .

[8]  J. Bouma,et al.  Modeling water and soil redistribution in a dynamic landscape context , 2002 .

[9]  L. Martz,et al.  The assignment of drainage direction over flat surfaces in raster digital elevation models , 1997 .

[10]  I. Creed,et al.  Prediction of groundwater characteristics in forested and harvested basins during spring snowmelt using a topographic index , 2001 .

[11]  Marco Borga,et al.  Analysis of topographic and climatic control on rainfall-triggered shallow landsliding using a quasi-dynamic wetness index , 2002 .

[12]  Richard R. Jones,et al.  Algorithms for using a DEM for mapping catchment areas of stream sediment samples , 2002 .

[13]  William E. Dietrich,et al.  Evidence for nonlinear, diffusive sediment transport on hillslopes and implications for landscape morphology , 1999 .

[14]  D. Tarboton,et al.  Advances in the mapping of flow networks from digital elevation data , 2001 .