Factors Affecting Estimates of Average Watershed Slope
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VIEW THE REPLYPublication: Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 10, Issue 2
Abstract
The sensitivity of average watershed slope, or -slope, to digital elevation model (DEM) grid size and source are examined by using high resolution light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. The results confirm previous findings that -slope is inversely proportional to DEM grid size. The sensitivity of -slope estimates to grid resolution makes it less desirable as a slope metric than main channel slope, which has been shown to remain constant up to resolutions. A comparison of -slope estimates from LiDAR DEMs and U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) DEMs shows that those based on the USGS DEMs are systematically underbiased. Differences between slope metrics and estimation methods can be significant. -slope estimates that are based on an alternative contour-based method are comparable to the DEM-based estimates. However, both estimates of -slope differ considerably from the main channel slope. Developers of hydrologic response time formulas should adopt standard protocols for estimating slope metrics that consider DEM grid size and quality of source data. Users of such formulas should be dissuaded from interchanging slope metrics.
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Acknowledgments
Diana Martinez of the Puget Sound Regional Council and the LSU GIS Research Laboratory provided the digital elevation data for this study. Dr. Francisco Olivera and two anonymous reviewers provided helpful comments to improve this manuscript.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Hydrologic Engineering
Volume 10 • Issue 2 • March 2005
Pages: 133 - 140
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Jul 22, 2003
Accepted: Feb 16, 2004
Published online: Mar 1, 2005
Published in print: Mar 2005
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