Comparison of the performance of flow‐routing algorithms used in GIS‐based hydrologic analysis

摘要

Flow direction and specific catchment area were calculated for different flow-routing algorithms using TAPES-G and TauDEM. A fuzzy classification was used along with eight topo–climatic attributes to delineate six landscape classes from a 10-m USGS DEM. A series of maps and tabular outputs were produced to compare flow-routing predictions in different parts of the study area in the Santa Monica Mountains of southern California. The matched pair -test was used to compare the performance of pairs of specific catchment area grids across six user-defined fuzzy landscape classes. The results show that (1) the ‘source’ cells predicted with the D∞, DEMON, and FD8 algorithms were confined to hilltops; (2) two single flow-routing algorithms (Rho8, D8) produced poor results; and (3) the choice of flow-routing algorithm has potentially important consequences for the calculation of upslope contributing areas, sediment transport capacity, topographic wetness, and several other topographic indices. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.