Presentation 8-DeM Hydrological

In the Name of God
Course Title:
GIS &RS Application in Water Resources
Engineering
Lecture 8:
DEM Hydrological Derivatives
Somayeh Sima
Fall Semester
1401-021
Outline
◼ DEM Hydrological Derivatives
◼ Slope
◼ Aspect
◼ Flow direction
◼ Watershed delineation
◼ Flow Accumulation
◼ Stream network delineation
◼ Flow distance
◼ Drainage density
◼ Drainage Network Ordering
◼ Stream Profile
GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 2

DEM Hydrologic Derivatives:
Slope
◼ Slope is the rate of change in elevation in a given
direction (x and y directions).
◼ Slope is the derivative of DEM in a given direction.
◼ Total slope is computed based on x and y slopes.

Slope

Slope
The rate of change in the x direction for cell e :
[dz/dx] = ((c + 2f + i) - (a + 2d + g) / (8 * x_cell size)
The rate of change in the y direction for cell e :
[dz/dy] = ((g + 2h + i) - (a + 2b + c)) / (8 * y_cell size)

Slope
slope_radians = ATAN ( √ ([dz/dx]2 + [dz/dy]2) )
slope_degrees = ATAN ( √ ([dz/dx]2 + [dz/dy]2) ) * 57.29578
1 radian = 180/pi= 57.29578 degrees

Slope (units)
◼ Slope is expressed in terms of degree or %.
◼ For surface calculations you MUST know your z

(elevation) units and horizontal units
• Example: % slope = (rise/run)*100
◼ If rise is a different unit that run (e.g., meters/decimal

degrees) the result is WRONG
◼ Elevation and horizontal units must be same type

(meters)
Slope Map

Aspect
◼ Aspect is the direction or orientation (in plan
view) of strongest slope.
◼ It is computed based on the ratio of y and x
slopes.

Aspect
DEM Aspect Map

Aspect
The rate of change in the x & y direction for cell e :
[dz/dx] = ((c + 2f + i) - (a + 2d + g) / (8* x pixel size)
[dz/dy] = ((g + 2h + i) - (a + 2b + c)) / (8* y pixel size)
aspect = 57.29578 * atan ([dz/dy]/ -[dz/dx])
if aspect < 0 cell = 90.0 - aspect

else if aspect > 90.0 cell = 360.0 - aspect + 90.0
else
cell = 90.0 - aspect

Aspect
Application of aspect:
◼ Find all north-facing slopes on a mountain as part of a search
for the best slopes for ski runs.

◼ Calculate the solar illumination for each location in a region
as part of a study to determine the diversity of life at each

site.
◼ Find all southerly slopes in a mountainous region to identify
locations where the snow is likely to melt first as part of a

study to identify those residential locations likely to be hit by
runoff first.
◼ Identify areas of flat land to find an area for a plane to land
in an emergency.
Flow Direction
◼ Useful for finding drainage networks and drainage divides
◼ Direction is determined by the elevation of surrounding cells

◼ Water can flow only into one cell in D8 method
◼ There are other multiple flow direction methods
◼ Water is assumed to flow into one other cell, unless there is

a sink
◼ Flow directions must not have loops.

Flow Direction

Flow Direction
◼ One of the keys to deriving hydrologic characteristics of a
surface is the ability to determine the direction of flow from
every cell in the raster.
◼ Finding Flow Direction is done based on the steepest slope: find
the steepest downhill slope of a central pixel to one of its 8
neighbor pixels.
◼ In Arcmap this is done with the Flow Direction tool. This tool
takes a surface as input and outputs a raster showing the
direction of flow out of each cell.

Flow Direction:
Eight Direction (D8) Model
◼ The output of the Flow Direction tool is an

integer raster whose values range from 1 to
255.
◼ This approach is commonly referred to as an

eight-direction (D8) flow model and follows an
approach presented in Jenson and Domingue (1988). The coding of the
direction of flow
The direction of flow is determined by the direction of

steepest descent, or maximum drop, from each cell as follows:
maximum_drop = change_in_z-value / distance * 100
Flow Direction
◼ This tool takes a surface as input and outputs a raster
showing the direction of flow out of each cell.
◼ If the Output drop raster option is chosen, an output
raster is created showing a ratio of the maximum change in
elevation from each cell along the direction of flow to the
path length between centers of cells and is expressed in
percentages.
◼ If the Force all edge cells to flow outward option is
chosen, all cells at the edge of the surface raster will flow
outward from the surface raster.

Flow Direction
◼ Steepest Slope

Flow Direction:
D∞ Multiple flow direction model

Flow Direction:
D∞ versus D8 methods

Use of DEM for hydrological
analysis
◼ Basins/Watersheds : drainage
areas for water resources
management
◼ Sub-basin/Sub-Watersheds/
Catchments: subdivision of
Basin into elementary
drainage areas by physical
rules
◼ Digital Elevation Model:
land surface terrain grid cells

Basin Delineation
◼ Begin at a source cell in a flow direction map
derived from a DEM
◼ Find all cells that flow into the source cell

◼ Iteratively find all cells that flow into those cells
◼ All of these cells comprise the basin

Basin Delineation
Watershed Draining to This Outlet

Flow Accumulation
◼ The number of cells or area which contribute to runoff

of a given cell.
◼ Flow accumulation measures the area of a watershed

that contributes runoff to a given cell depending on
flow direction method (D8, etc.)
◼ It is also called “Total Contributing Area=TCA” or

“Upslope Area”.

Flow Accumulation
Flow accumulation Grid

Flow Accumulation
Contributing Area Grid

Stream Network Delineation
◼ Flow accumulation, once it reaches a threshold
appropriate to an region, forms a drainage stream
◼ Example: Contributing Area > 10 Cell Threshold

◼ Flow accumulation → Drainage network
◼ Drainage network as
defined by cells above
threshold value for region.
(Use raster calculator to

Apply a threshold)

◼ How to decide on threshold?

◼ Streams from 1:250,000: blue lines

◼ 100 grid cell constant support area threshold stream delineation

◼ 200 grid cell constant support area threshold stream delineation


Snap Pour Point
◼ It is used to ensure the selection of points of high accumulated flow
when delineating drainage basins using the Watershed tool.
◼ This is usually the lowest point along the boundary of the drainage
basin.
◼ Snap Pour Point will search within a snap distance around the
specified pour points for the cell of highest accumulated flow and
move the pour point to that location.
◼ If the input pour point data is a point feature class, it will be

converted to a raster internally for processing.
◼ The output is an integer raster when the original pour point
locations have been snapped to locations of higher accumulated
flow.
GIS
◼ & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 36
Snap Pour Point

Watersheds Delineation:
Example

Flow Length
◼ Flow length is the cumulative distance along flow direction to a given
outlet or point of drainage according to the flow paths available in a
Flow direction map.
◼ A primary use of the Flow Length is to calculate the length of the

longest flow path within a given basin.
◼ This measure is often used to calculate the time of concentration of a

basin. This would be done using the UPSTREAM option.

Reminder:
hydrograph

Flow length
◼ Reminder:
◼ Time of concentration is a concept used in hydrology to measure the response
of a watershed to a rain event. It is defined as the time needed for water to flow
from the most remote point in a watershed to the watershed outlet.
◼ It is a function of the topography, geology, and land use within the watershed.

Flow length
Upstream Tracing Downstream Tracing :
Flow direction
•DOWNSTREAM — Calculates the downslope distance along the flow path, from
each cell to a sink or outlet on the edge of the raster.
•UPSTREAM — Calculates the longest upslope distance along the flow path, from
each cell to the top of the drainage divide.
Flow Distance/Length
◼ Flow direction from each grid cell to outlet on DEM background

Flow length
Cell to Cell distance

Flow length
Cumulative flow distance to the outlet

Flow length
Recursive Approach

Drainage Density

Drainage Density
Drainage density for different stream delineation thresholds

Drainage Density
Drainage Density Versus Contributing Area Threshold
Drainage density (total channel length divided by drainage area) as a function of drainage area
support threshold used to define channels for the three study watersheds.

Drainage Density

Drainage Density

Drainage Density
Azizian & Shokoohi,2015

Drainage Density
◼ By increasing the stream formation threshold area, the number of extracted
stream will decrease.
◼ From a hydraulic perspective, increasing the threshold area could increase the
contribution of overland area (where resistance to flow is higher) to the total
flow. Henceforth, regarding the governing equations in uniform flow (e.g.
Manning equation), flow in sub-basins with low drainage density could be
reduced, which will eventually decrease the simulated hygrograph’s peak
flow, and, based on the principle of mass balance, will increase the
hydrograph base time.
◼ Similarly, by increasing the number of first-order streams, the effective
rainfall will spend less time in each sub-basin and, after arriving in the
stream, could move faster toward the watershed outlet. This phenomenon
could reduce the time to peak and increase the slope of the hydrograph’s
rising limb.

Drainage Density
◼ The travel time by water within the basin is controlled by Drainage
density .
◼ In humid regions, Dd varies between 0.55 and 2.09 km/km²
[Langbein,1947].
◼ Generally, Dd has a low value in regions underlain with highly resistant
permeable material with vegetative cover and low relief. High drainage
density is observed in the regions of weak and impermeable subsurface
material and sparse vegetation and mountainous relief.
◼ The low and moderate Dd watersheds reveal that they are composed of
permeable subsurface material, good vegetation cover, and low relief
which results in more infiltration capacity and comparably are good sites
for ground water recharge as compared to high Dd watersheds.
Drainage Network Ordering
Strahler Stream Order:

◼ most upstream is order 1
◼ when two streams of a

order i join, a stream of
order i+1 is created
◼ when a stream of order i

joins a stream of order
i+1, stream order
remains at i+1
Slope Law

Bifurcation Ratio
◼ The bifurcation ratio, which is defined as the ratio of the number of
stream branches of a given order to the number of stream branches
of the next higher order (Horton ,1945):
◼ Where: RB= bifurcation ratio,

Ni=number of streams of given order,
Ni+1=number of streams of next higher order.
◼ According to Horton (1945), the bifurcation ratio varies from a

minimum of 2 in "flat drainage basins '' to 3 or 4 in ''mountainous or
highly dissected drainage basins";

Bifurcation Ratio
Kleinhans et al.,2012

Bifurcation Ratio
◼ RB does not precisely remain constant from one order to the next,
because of possibility of variations in watershed geometry and
lithology.
◼ High RBm indicates early hydrograph peak with a potential for flash
flooding during the storm events .
◼ Higher RB values are the characteristics of structurally more

disturbed watersheds with a prominent distortion in drainage
pattern.

Bifurcation Law
the higher the bifurcation ratio, the greater the probability of flooding

Stream Profile

Stream Slope
Lh
𝒁𝒎𝒂𝒙 − 𝒁𝒎𝒊𝒏
𝑮𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒔𝒍𝒐𝒑𝒆 =
𝑳𝒉
Stream Slope

Summary
▪ DEM Hydrological Derivatives:
◼ Slope ◼Stream network delineation

◼ Aspect ◼Flow length
◼ Flow direction ◼Drainage density
◼ Watershed delineation ◼Drainage Network Ordering
◼ Flow Accumulation ◼Stream Profile

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In the Name of God

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 2

◼ Slope is the derivative of DEM in a given direction.

◼ Total slope is computed based on x and y slopes.

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 3

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 4

The rate of change in the y direction for cell e :

[dz/dy] = ((g + 2h + i) - (a + 2b + c)) / (8 * y_cell size)

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 5

slope_radians = ATAN ( √ ([dz/dx]2 + [dz/dy]2) )

slope_degrees = ATAN ( √ ([dz/dx]2 + [dz/dy]2) ) * 57.29578

1 radian = 180/pi= 57.29578 degrees

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 6

◼ For surface calculations you MUST know your z

◼ If rise is a different unit that run (e.g., meters/decimal

◼ Elevation and horizontal units must be same type

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 8

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 9

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 10

[dz/dy] = ((g + 2h + i) - (a + 2b + c)) / (8* y pixel size)

aspect = 57.29578 * atan ([dz/dy]/ -[dz/dx])

if aspect < 0 cell = 90.0 - aspect

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 11

for the best slopes for ski runs.

as part of a study to determine the diversity of life at each

locations where the snow is likely to melt first as part of a

◼ Direction is determined by the elevation of surrounding cells

◼ Water is assumed to flow into one other cell, unless there is

◼ Flow directions must not have loops.

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 14

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 15

◼ The output of the Flow Direction tool is an

◼ This approach is commonly referred to as an

The direction of flow is determined by the direction of

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 17

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 18

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 19

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 20

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 21

◼ Find all cells that flow into the source cell

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 22

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 23

◼ The number of cells or area which contribute to runoff

◼ Flow accumulation measures the area of a watershed

◼ It is also called “Total Contributing Area=TCA” or

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 25

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 26

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 27

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 28

(Use raster calculator to

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 29

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 30

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 31

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 32

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 33

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 35

◼ If the input pour point data is a point feature class, it will be

GIS & RS Application in Water Resources Engineering by : Somayeh Sima 37