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Selected Works

2007

Soil Science

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Full-Text Articles in Physics

Digital Elevation Accuracy And Grid Cell Size: Effects On Computed Topographic Attributes, Rob H. Erskine, Timothy R. Green Dec 2006

Digital Elevation Accuracy And Grid Cell Size: Effects On Computed Topographic Attributes, Rob H. Erskine, Timothy R. Green

Timothy R. Green

Terrain attributes are commonly used to explain the spatial variability of agronomic, pedologic, and hydrologic variables. The terrain attributes studied here (elevation, slope, aspect, and curvature) are estimated readily from digital elevation models (DEMs), but questions remain about how the accuracy and sample spacing of the elevation data affect the estimated attributes. The main objective of this study was to quantify differences in each terrain attribute due to factors affecting DEM accuracy and grid cell size. Three data sources were compared: (i) real-time kinematic global positioning system (RTKGPS); (ii) satellite-differentially corrected global positioning system (DGPS); and (iii) U.S. Geological Survey …