Document Type
Thesis - University Access Only
Award Date
2010
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department / School
Geography
Abstract
Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are digital representations of earth surfaces. DEMs are useful data for a number of scientific applications. Remotely sensed data are widely used to develop DEMs. The Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) has collected surface data from the entire earth surface between 60 degrees north and 55 degrees south. The SRTM data have 1 arc second resolution, which was used to develop new global DEMs (GMTED201 0) with various resolutions constructed by different algorithms. The breakline emphasis and systematic subsample are two methods among the seven. The goal for this research is to assess the horizontal displacement of topographic features from the generalized DEMs by the two methods. To evaluate the horizontal displacement of the features, a methodology was developed and implemented to assess how the topographic features are displaced as compared to the original DEMs at three different resolutions (7.5, 15, and 30 arc second resolution). Sixteen sample SRTM DEM tiles from eight physiographic regions are selected to assess the displacement of features. The results show that there is no relationship between displacement of topographic features and relief of the regions. However, the displacement of the features increases with the increasing pixel size of generalized DEMs.
Key words: Digital Elevation Model, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, breakline emphasis, systematic subsample, topographic, generalization, physiographic.
Library of Congress Subject Headings
Digital mapping
Topographical surveying
Format
application/pdf
Number of Pages
88
Publisher
South Dakota State University
Recommended Citation
Dahal, Devendra, "An Assessment of Horizontal Displacement of Topographic Features in Generalized Digital Elevation Models" (2010). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 1646.
https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/etd2/1646