Chapter 6 Basic Land-Surface Parameters

This chapter presents different formulations, each one of them with a different degree of mathematical complexity, to extract basic morphometric parameters from the digital elevation model (DEM) itself and then discuss importance and interpretation of each parameter. The study of morphometric land-surface parameters start with those related to the local morphometry of each point. They are divided into two main groups: (1) Geometric and (2) statistical measures. For each type of land-surface parameter, a detailed description has been given including further information on the physical phenomena described by each one. The chapter introduces some well-known parameters, such as slope or aspect, and then extends that to some less common ones, such as the Shape Complexity Index, the Anisotropic Coefficient of Variation, geostatistical land-surface parameters, or fractal-based ones that represent the most actual trend in this field.