Your browser is not JavaScript-enabled, These buttons will not work. These DEMs are important because they provide the basic data as well as derivative information such as slope, aspect and flow characteristics that are critical in environmental problems for hydrologic, biologic, and geologic studies. Digital delineation of drainage basins from DEM's is a primary example of this newly-evolving capability.
Drainage basins are crucial for resource management, ecosystems analysis, and global-change studies.
This poster describes drainage basin delineation from a one kilometer DEM on a continental scale for Africa, as part of the on-going project on drainage database design based on DEMs at the EROS Data Center. One important concept in hydrologic modeling is the river basin. An established methodology for basin delineation and verification will benefit users in many disciplines. Specific watershed thresholding will be useful in management situations that employ drainage areas for spatial control. The improved uses of DEMs will be a major resource in examination of global problems in the future.