Effects of Sampling and Interpolation Methods on Accuracy of Extracted Watershed Features
Publication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 26, Issue 3
Abstract
High-accuracy watershed features can be used as hydrological parameters of a distributed hydrological model and a nonpoint source pollution model. A total of 3,863 elevation points in Haizi Watershed, China, are collected to produce a basic digital elevation model (DEM). Spline, kriging, and inverse distance weighting methods are selected to interpolate different sample sizes obtained by different sampling methods. A total of 105 DEMs are constructed to extract river networks, outfalls, and watersheds. The accuracies of watershed features are evaluated by using root-mean-square error, and the errors of outfall position, river network closure (crossings of the actual and the extracted river networks), river network density, and watershed area. The results show that the accuracies of DEMs and watershed features increase with an increase in sample size. Sample size, sampling method, and interpolation method have significant impacts on the accuracies of DEMs, outfall position, river network closure, and watershed area. Sample size is most important for deriving watershed features. The optimal combinations of sample size, sampling method, and interpolation method can improve the accuracies of watershed features.
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Data Availability Statement
Some or all data or models generated or used during the study are available from the corresponding author by request (DEMs and sampling points in Haizi Watershed, data of river networks, outfalls, and watershed).
Acknowledgments
This project (2020AAC03055) was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Ningxia in China. The authors appreciate the Weijiang Zhang’ team of the School of Civil Engineering and Hydraulic Engineering in Ningxia University for providing the elevation mapping data. Appreciation is also expressed to the three anonymous reviewers and Holly Koppel for comments that led to significant improvements to the paper.
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 26 • Issue 3 • March 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 22, 2020
Accepted: Nov 16, 2020
Published online: Dec 29, 2020
Published in print: Mar 1, 2021
Discussion open until: May 29, 2021
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