Generating and analyzing Terrain characteristics from Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM), DEM

Ugbelase Vincent Nwacholundu *, Igbokwe Joel Izuchukwu, Emengini Josephine Ebele, Ejikeme Joseph Onyedika and Igbokwe Esomchukwu Chinagorom

Department of Surveying & Geoinformatics, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra, Nigeria.
 
Review Article
World Journal of Advanced Research and Reviews, 2021, 10(03), 198–206
Article DOI: 10.30574/wjarr.2021.10.3.0272
 
Publication history: 
Received on 05 May 2021; revised on 08 June 2021; accepted on 11 June 2021
 
Abstract: 
Terrain analysis is the quantitative analysis of topographic surfaces. The purpose of a digital terrain system is to provide the digital representation of terrain so that environmental problem like soil erosion may be approached accurately and efficiently through automated means. Traditionally this was (and still is!) being done manually by using topographic/contour maps. With the availability of Digital Elevation Models (DEM) and GIS tools, watershed properties can be extracted by using automated procedures. Remote Sensing and Digital elevation models (DEMs) are known to be very useful data sources for the automated delineation of flow paths, sub watersheds and flow networks for hydrologic modelling and watershed characterization. The digital terrain model was extracted from a 90m resolution Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) of the study area. The SRTM data was corrected by removing voids, striping, tree offsets and random noise. The SRTM DEM data was projected from geographic coordinate WGS 84 to UTM zone 32 of the study area. The 3-D analysis tool of the ArcGIS 10.1 was used for this process. The DEM was processed to obtain the Slope, Contour, Flow direction, Flow accumulation, Flow length, Stream power Index of the study area. The study proved that SRTM elevation dataset has the ability to obviate the lack of terrain data for hydrologic modelling using ArcGIS where appropriate data for terrain modelling and simulation of hydrological processes is unavailable.
 
Keywords: 
SRTM; DEM; ArcGIS; Terrain
 
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