Terrain Analysis

Generically, the term terrain analysis covers all processes that extract information from all kinds of terrain surface representation data. Such representations may include contour lines, profile lines, triangulated irregular networks, and square-grid digital elevation models (DEMs). The primary information extracted from terrain surface representations may be about local morphology or the characteristics of the entire catchment/watershed. Based on this primary information, the movements of materials controlled by gravity and the dynamics of energy [Page 2799]controlled by solar radiation over the land surface can be understood and described, and in turn, complex hydrological, geomorphological, pedological, and biological processes can be modeled. For this reason, terrain analysis has found applications in different fields, including geomorphology, soil science, hydrology, ecology, civil engineering, and environmental science.

The relationships between certain ...