Session Information
| Session | Poster Session | | Date | Monday (2008-04-07) | | Time | 5:00 PM - 7:00 PM | | Room | Grand Terrace |
Presentation Information
| Presenter | Matthew Baker | | Title | New approaches for representing spatial variability and uncertainty in watershed connectivity | | Affiliation | Utah State University | | Authors | Matthew Baker, David Tarboton | | Keywords | Hydrology, Landscape metrics, Riparian buffers, Topography, Watershed analysis | | Presentation Type | Poster | Abstract:
In watershed analysis, attributes of upslope contributing areas are often summarized to develop expectations about stream conditions at outlet locations. More recently, investigators have also explored various approaches for quantifying the spatial arrangement or proximity of landscape attributes relative to streams and sampling stations. Because water routing controls the delivery of watershed signals to streams, understanding constraints on hydrologic transport can help improve precision in models of stream condition. Topographic analysis of digital elevation models is often used to understand and represent patterns of water movement; yet widely available analysis software continues to rely on a deterministic, eight-directional flow direction model. In contrast, the D-infinity flow direction model apportions flow between downslope grid-cell neighbors and allows for more realistic representations of the dispersion of flow in complex terrain. We present an extension of the D-infinity algorithm for summarizing the minimum, maximum and average flow-path length from each grid cell, and use a series of case studies to show how more precise routing algorithms can influence characterizations of watershed connectivity and riparian buffering. |
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