Determination of 3D Displacements of Drainage Networks Extracted from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) Using Linear-Based Methods

Abstract

This study describes a new method developed to determine the 3D positional displacements of the drainage networks extracted from Digital Elevation Models (DEMs). The proposed method establishes several stages for data preparation. The displacements are derived by means of linestring-based assessment methods, which can be applied in 2D and 3D. Also, we propose the use of several tools (maps, aggregation of results, new indices, etc.) in order to obtain a wider assessment of positional accuracy, or a time change analysis. This approach supposes a novelty in drainage network studies both in the application of line-based methods and its expansion to 3D data. The method has been tested using a sample of channels extracted from DEMs of two different dates of a zone of about 600 square kilometers using as reference linestrings those extracted from another more recent DEM which had higher spatial accuracy and higher spatial resolution. The results have demonstrated the viability of the method proposed because of the obtaining of 3D displacement vectors, which showed the general and particular behavior of the channels selected.

Pixel-Based Geometric Assessment of Channel Networks/Orders Derived from Global Spaceborne Digital Elevation Models

“…They used the adapted Hausdorff distance (i.e., a 2-D maximum distance between channels) and vertex influence (i.e., weighting each vector of the 3-D channel by the segments' lengths adjacent to each vertex) methods [132] to determine the horizontal displacement between the networks. Their findings demonstrated their method's applicability to determine the positional displacement of the selected channels [47]. However, the proposed methods by Mozas-Calvache et al 2017 [47] and Anderson et al 2014 [46] had similar limitations in the selection and preparation of channels for evaluation.…”

“…Their findings demonstrated their method's applicability to determine the positional displacement of the selected channels [47]. However, the proposed methods by Mozas-Calvache et al 2017 [47] and Anderson et al 2014 [46] had similar limitations in the selection and preparation of channels for evaluation. They selected only a subset of channels; also, they checked that there were a one-to-one correspondence and proximity between the channels' polylines in both the reference and test datasets.…”

“…To our knowledge, there are two similar studies in the literature, in which Anderson et al 2014 [46] and Mozas-Calvache et al 2017 [47] introduced two methods for the quantitative comparison of vector-based stream networks. Anderson et al 2014 [46] mentioned that it is a complex and challenging task to compare and evaluate the degree of matching between two networks of several sets of polylines.…”

“…Mozas-Calvache et al 2017 [47] proposed a method to determine the maximum and mean positional displacements of DEMs-based drainage networks. They used the adapted Hausdorff distance (i.e., a 2-D maximum distance between channels) and vertex influence (i.e., weighting each vector of the 3-D channel by the segments' lengths adjacent to each vertex) methods [132] to determine the horizontal displacement between the networks.…”

“…The horizontal assessment of channel networks was rarely discussed in the literature, where Anderson et al 2014 [46] and Mozas-Calvache et al 2017 [47] proposed two vector-based approaches for the horizontal evaluation of stream networks. However, both methods had some constraints in the selection and preparation of the channels for the evaluation.…”