Advances in Digital Terrain Analysis pp 323-332 | Cite as
Modelling Slope Field Uncertainty Derived From DEM in the Loess Plateau
Abstract
This chapter explains how land use in the Loess Plateau area was classified using TM (Thematic Mapper) remote sensing data. Slope fields were extracted from DEMs (Digital Elevation Models) at different scales and the effects of different scales on slope field precision were also analysed. Results show that a DEM with a scale of 1:50,000 (with a resolution of 25 m) was basically sufficient to extract slope fields with the required precision. Although the accuracy of slopes extracted from a scale of 1:10,000 is higher than DEMs of other scales, the detailed land appearance did not show obvious improvement on the slope field precision because of the special land use in the studied area, especially the considerable effect of land use type on plantation layout (plantations focused on Loess Mao of small slopes and large areas). Furthermore, with the constraints of using the resolution of 30 m for the land use, DEMs with the scale of 1:10,000 could not show its advantage of high precision and increased the redundancy and computing load; thus it was not appropriate for obtaining slope fields of large areas. The DEM with a scale of 1:250,000 could not be used to extract slope field graphs effectively either, because of its large generalizations over the study area.
Keywords
Loess Plateau slope field DEM uncertainty remote sensingPreview
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