“…Some of the more complex multi-directional flow algorithms minimise divergence where unrealistic, and give a more natural representation of flows along ridges, pits, and flats. When used in combination with DEM-derived slope layers, any of the above algorithms can be used to develop soil wetness indices such as the topographic wetness index (T WI ; Tarboton, 1997), the topographic position index (TPI; Weiss, 2001), and the cartographic depth-to-water (D TW , Murphy et al, 2007), with T WI and D TW proving useful for mapping soil (type, drainage, chemical, and physical properties), soil trafficability, and species-or community-based vegetation distributions (Murphy et al, 2011;Zinko et al, 2006;Sørensen et al, 2006;Kuglerova et al, 2014). In this regard, some of the above flow-accumulation algorithms perform better than others.…”