Review on scale-related researches in grid-based digital terrain analysis

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  • 1. State Key Lab of Resources and Environmental Information System, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China;
    2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China

Received date: 2013-06-12

  Revised date: 2013-12-25

  Online published: 2014-02-10

Abstract

The scale-dependent characteristics in gridded digital elevation model(DEM) cause scale-related problems to digital terrain analysis(DTA). In this paper, we first introduce main types of scales in DEM and DTA. Focusing on resolution and neighborhood size, we summarize four types of main scale-related problems in DEMs and DTA(i.e. multi-scale representation, scale effect characterization, appropriate scale determination, and scale transformation) and describe the relationships among these four problems. Then the quantitative research methods for each kind of scale problems are reviewed. Particularly, the quantitative methods for scale effect characterization and appropriate scale determination are classified according to different categories of information used for computing quantitative indicators. As a conclusion, we list key research issues in this field.

Cite this article

QIN Chengzhi, HU Xuemei . Review on scale-related researches in grid-based digital terrain analysis[J]. GEOGRAPHICAL RESEARCH, 2014 , 33(2) : 270 -283 . DOI: 10.11821/dlyj201402007

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