Digital elevation models derived from airborne laser scanning point clouds: appropriate spatial resolutions for multi-temporal characterization and quantification of geomorphological processes

• Published in: Earth surface processes and landforms Vol. 39; no. 2; pp. 272 - 284
• Main Authors: Sailer, Rudolf, Rutzinger, Martin, Rieg, Lorenzo, Wichmann, Volker
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chichester Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2014; Wiley; Wiley Subscription Services, Inc
• Subjects: Accuracy; Airborne lasers; Bgi / Prodig; cell size; Density; digital terrain models; DTM differencing; Error analysis; Geomorphology; geomorphometry; Mathematical models; Methods and techniques; Physical geography; Roughness; Terrain; topographic lidar; Alps (The); Austria; Tirol; Mountain; High mountain; Slope gradient; LiDAR; Roughness; Error; Geomorphometry; Digital elevation model; Quantitative analysis
• ISSN: 0197-9337; 1096-9837
• DOI: 10.1002/esp.3490

ABSTRACT Digital terrain models (DTMs) are a standard data source for a variety of applications. DTM differencing is also widely used for detection and quantification of topographic changes. While several investigations have been made on the accuracy of DTMs, calculated from different kinds of input data, little has been published on the error of DTM differencing, specifically for the quantification of geomorphological processes. In this study, an extensive, multi‐temporal set of airborne laser scanning (ALS) data is used to investigate the accuracy of topographic change calculations in a high alpine environment, caused by different geomorphic processes. Differences from DTMs with cell sizes ranging from 0.25 m to 10 m were calculated and compared to very accurate point‐to‐point calculations for a variety of processes and in nearby stable areas which show no significant surface changes. The representativeness of the DTM differences is then compared to the terrain slope and surface roughness of the investigated areas to show the influence of these parameters on the errors in the differences. Those errors are then taken into account for analyses of the applicability of different cell sizes for the investigation of geomorphic processes with different magnitudes and over different time periods. The analyses show that the error of DTM differences increases with lower point densities and higher roughness and slope values. The higher the error, the greater the differences between two elevation datasets have to be in order to quantify certain morphodynamic processes. Lower point densities and higher roughness and slope values require greater process rates or longer time intervals in order to obtain valid results. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.