TY - GEN A1 - Purinton, Benjamin A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo T1 - Validation of digital elevation models (DEMs) and comparison of geomorphic metrics on the southern Central Andean Plateau N2 - In this study, we validate and compare elevation accuracy and geomorphic metrics of satellite-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) on the southern Central Andean Plateau. The plateau has an average elevation of 3.7 km and is characterized by diverse topography and relief, lack of vegetation, and clear skies that create ideal conditions for remote sensing. At 30m resolution, SRTM-C, ASTER GDEM2, stacked ASTER L1A stereopair DEM, ALOS World 3D, and TanDEM-X have been analyzed. The higher-resolution datasets include 12m TanDEM-X, 10m single-CoSSC TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X DEMs, and 5m ALOS World 3D. These DEMs are state of the art for optical (ASTER and ALOS) and radar (SRTM-C and TanDEM-X) spaceborne sensors. We assessed vertical accuracy by comparing standard deviations of the DEM elevation versus 307 509 differential GPS measurements across 4000m of elevation. For the 30m DEMs, the ASTER datasets had the highest vertical standard deviation at > 6.5 m, whereas the SRTM-C, ALOS World 3D, and TanDEM-X were all < 3.5 m. Higher-resolution DEMs generally had lower uncertainty, with both the 12m TanDEM-X and 5m ALOSWorld 3D having < 2m vertical standard deviation. Analysis of vertical uncertainty with respect to terrain elevation, slope, and aspect revealed the low uncertainty across these attributes for SRTM-C (30 m), TanDEM-X (12–30 m), and ALOS World 3D (5–30 m). Single-CoSSC TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X 10m DEMs and the 30m ASTER GDEM2 displayed slight aspect biases, which were removed in their stacked counterparts (TanDEM-X and ASTER Stack). Based on low vertical standard deviations and visual inspection alongside optical satellite data, we selected the 30m SRTM-C, 12–30m TanDEM-X, 10m single-CoSSC TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X, and 5m ALOS World 3D for geomorphic metric comparison in a 66 km2 catchment with a distinct river knickpoint. Consistent m=n values were found using chi plot channel profile analysis, regardless of DEM type and spatial resolution. Slope, curvature, and drainage area were calculated and plotting schemes were used to assess basin-wide differences in the hillslope-to-valley transition related to the knickpoint. While slope and hillslope length measurements vary little between datasets, curvature displays higher magnitude measurements with fining resolution. This is especially true for the optical 5m ALOS World 3D DEM, which demonstrated high-frequency noise in 2–8 pixel steps through a Fourier frequency analysis. The improvements in accurate space-radar DEMs (e.g., TanDEM-X) for geomorphometry are promising, but airborne or terrestrial data are still necessary for meter-scale analysis. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 338 Y1 - 2017 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-396277 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Atmani, Farid A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo A1 - Smith, Taylor T1 - Measuring Vegetation Heights and Their Seasonal Changes in the Western Namibian Savanna Using Spaceborne Lidars T2 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) with its land and vegetation height data product (ATL08), and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) with its terrain elevation and height metrics data product (GEDI Level 2A) missions have great potential to globally map ground and canopy heights. Canopy height is a key factor in estimating above-ground biomass and its seasonal changes; these satellite missions can also improve estimated above-ground carbon stocks. This study presents a novel Sparse Vegetation Detection Algorithm (SVDA) which uses ICESat-2 (ATL03, geolocated photons) data to map tree and vegetation heights in a sparsely vegetated savanna ecosystem. The SVDA consists of three main steps: First, noise photons are filtered using the signal confidence flag from ATL03 data and local point statistics. Second, we classify ground photons based on photon height percentiles. Third, tree and grass photons are classified based on the number of neighbors. We validated tree heights with field measurements (n = 55), finding a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 1.82 m using SVDA, GEDI Level 2A (Geolocated Elevation and Height Metrics product): 1.33 m, and ATL08: 5.59 m. Our results indicate that the SVDA is effective in identifying canopy photons in savanna ecosystems, where ATL08 performs poorly. We further identify seasonal vegetation height changes with an emphasis on vegetation below 3 m; widespread height changes in this class from two wet-dry cycles show maximum seasonal changes of 1 m, possibly related to seasonal grass-height differences. Our study shows the difficulties of vegetation measurements in savanna ecosystems but provides the first estimates of seasonal biomass changes. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1275 KW - ICESat-2 KW - GEDI KW - canopy height KW - lidar KW - savanna Y1 - 2022 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-569915 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1275 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Smith, Taylor A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo T1 - Assessing Multi-Temporal Snow-Volume Trends in High Mountain Asia From 1987 to 2016 Using High-Resolution Passive Microwave Data T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - High Mountain Asia (HMA) is dependent upon both the amount and timing of snow and glacier meltwater. Previous model studies and coarse resolution (0.25° × 0.25°, ∼25 km × 25 km) passive microwave assessments of trends in the volume and timing of snowfall, snowmelt, and glacier melt in HMA have identified key spatial and seasonal heterogeneities in the response of snow to changes in regional climate. Here we use recently developed, continuous, internally consistent, and high-resolution passive microwave data (3.125 km × 3.125 km, 1987–2016) from the special sensor microwave imager instrument family to refine and extend previous estimates of changes in the snow regime of HMA. We find an overall decline in snow volume across HMA; however, there exist spatially contiguous regions of increasing snow volume—particularly during the winter season in the Pamir, Karakoram, Hindu Kush, and Kunlun Shan. Detailed analysis of changes in snow-volume trends through time reveal a large step change from negative trends during the period 1987–1997, to much more positive trends across large regions of HMA during the periods 1997–2007 and 2007–2016. We also find that changes in high percentile monthly snow-water volume exhibit steeper trends than changes in low percentile snow-water volume, which suggests a reduction in the frequency of high snow-water volumes in much of HMA. Regions with positive snow-water storage trends generally correspond to regions of positive glacier mass balances. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1020 KW - snow KW - glacier KW - climate change KW - passive microwave KW - special sensor microwave imager KW - special sensor microwave imager/sounder Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-484176 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1020 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Olen, Stephanie M. A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo T1 - Mapping Damage-Affected Areas after Natural Hazard Events Using Sentinel-1 Coherence Time Series T2 - remote sensing N2 - The emergence of the Sentinel-1A and 1B satellites now offers freely available and widely accessible Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data. Near-global coverage and rapid repeat time (6–12 days) gives Sentinel-1 data the potential to be widely used for monitoring the Earth’s surface. Subtle land-cover and land surface changes can affect the phase and amplitude of the C-band SAR signal, and thus the coherence between two images collected before and after such changes. Analysis of SAR coherence therefore serves as a rapidly deployable and powerful tool to track both seasonal changes and rapid surface disturbances following natural disasters. An advantage of using Sentinel-1 C-band radar data is the ability to easily construct time series of coherence for a region of interest at low cost. In this paper, we propose a new method for Potentially Affected Area (PAA) detection following a natural hazard event. Based on the coherence time series, the proposed method (1) determines the natural variability of coherence within each pixel in the region of interest, accounting for factors such as seasonality and the inherent noise of variable surfaces; and (2) compares pixel-by-pixel syn-event coherence to temporal coherence distributions to determine where statistically significant coherence loss has occurred. The user can determine to what degree the syn-event coherence value (e.g., 1st, 5th percentile of pre-event distribution) constitutes a PAA, and integrate pertinent regional data, such as population density, to rank and prioritise PAAs. We apply the method to two case studies, Sarpol-e, Iran following the 2017 Iran-Iraq earthquake, and a landslide-prone region of NW Argentina, to demonstrate how rapid identification and interpretation of potentially affected areas can be performed shortly following a natural hazard event. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 471 KW - Sentinel-1 KW - natural hazards KW - rapid damage mapping KW - coherence KW - potentially affected areas (PAA) Y1 - 2018 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-417766 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Smith, Taylor A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo A1 - Cannon, Forest T1 - Improving semi-automated glacier mapping with a multi-method approach BT - applications in central Asia T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Studies of glaciers generally require precise glacier outlines. Where these are not available, extensive manual digitization in a geographic information system (GIS) must be performed, as current algorithms struggle to delineate glacier areas with debris cover or other irregular spectral profiles. Although several approaches have improved upon spectral band ratio delineation of glacier areas, none have entered wide use due to complexity or computational intensity. In this study, we present and apply a glacier mapping algorithm in Central Asia which delineates both clean glacier ice and debris-covered glacier tongues. The algorithm is built around the unique velocity and topographic characteristics of glaciers and further leverages spectral and spatial relationship data. We found that the algorithm misclassifies between 2 and 10% of glacier areas, as compared to a similar to 750 glacier control data set, and can reliably classify a given Landsat scene in 3-5 min. The algorithm does not completely solve the difficulties inherent in classifying glacier areas from remotely sensed imagery but does represent a significant improvement over purely spectral-based classification schemes, such as the band ratio of Landsat 7 bands three and five or the normalized difference snow index. The main caveats of the algorithm are (1) classification errors at an individual glacier level, (2) reliance on manual intervention to separate connected glacier areas, and (3) dependence on fidelity of the input Landsat data. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 510 KW - debris-covered glaciers KW - land ice measurements KW - remote-sensing data KW - thematic mapper KW - glims project KW - aster data KW - inventory KW - area KW - deformation KW - parameters Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-408471 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 510 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Zeilinger, Gerold A1 - Mutti, Maria A1 - Strecker, Manfred A1 - Rehak, Katrin A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo A1 - Schwab, Marco T1 - Integration of digital elevation models and satellite images to investigate geological processes. N2 - In order to better understand the geological boundary conditions for ongoing or past surface processes geologists face two important questions: 1) How can we gain additional knowledge about geological processes by analyzing digital elevation models (DEM) and satellite images and 2) Do these efforts present a viable approach for more efficient research. Here, we will present case studies at a variety of scales and levels of resolution to illustrate how we can substantially complement and enhance classical geological approaches with remote sensing techniques. Commonly, satellite and DEM based studies are being used in a first step of assessing areas of geologic interest. While in the past the analysis of satellite imagery (e.g. Landsat TM) and aerial photographs was carried out to characterize the regional geologic characteristics, particularly structure and lithology, geologists have increasingly ventured into a process-oriented approach. This entails assessing structures and geomorphic features with a concept that includes active tectonics or tectonic activity on time scales relevant to humans. In addition, these efforts involve analyzing and quantifying the processes acting at the surface by integrating different remote sensing and topographic data (e.g. SRTM-DEM, SSM/I, GPS, Landsat 7 ETM, Aster, Ikonos…). A combined structural and geomorphic study in the hyperarid Atacama desert demonstrates the use of satellite and digital elevation data for assessing geological structures formed by long-term (millions of years) feedback mechanisms between erosion and crustal bending (Zeilinger et al., 2005). The medium-term change of landscapes during hundred thousands to millions years in a more humid setting is shown in an example from southern Chile. Based on an analysis of rivers/watersheds combined with landscapes parameterization by using digital elevation models, the geomorphic evolution and change in drainage pattern in the coastal Cordillera can be quantified and put into the context of seismotectonic segmentation of a tectonically active region. This has far-reaching implications for earthquake rupture scenarios and hazard mitigation (K. Rehak, see poster on IMAF Workshop). Two examples illustrate short-term processes on decadal, centennial and millennial time scales: One study uses orogen scale precipitation gradients derived from remotely sensed passive microwave data (Bookhagen et al., 2005a). They demonstrate how debris flows were triggered as a response of slopes to abnormally strong rainfall in the interior parts of the Himalaya during intensified monsoons. The area of the orogen that receives high amounts of precipitation during intensified monsoons also constitutes numerous landslide deposits of up to 1km3 volume that were generated during intensified monsoon phase at about 27 and 9 ka (Bookhagen et al., 2005b). Another project in the Swiss Alps compared sets of aerial photographs recorded in different years. By calculating high resolution surfaces the mass transport in a landslide could be reconstructed (M. Schwab, Universität Bern). All these examples, although representing only a short and limited selection of projects using remote sense data in geology, have as a common approach the goal to quantify geological processes. With increasing data resolution and new sensors future projects will even enable us to recognize more patterns and / or structures indicative of geological processes in tectonically active areas. This is crucial for the analysis of natural hazards like earthquakes, tsunamis and landslides, as well as those hazards that are related to climatic variability. The integration of remotely sensed data at different spatial and temporal scales with field observations becomes increasingly important. Many of presently highly populated places and increasingly utilized regions are subject to significant environmental pressure and often constitute areas of concentrated economic value. Combined remote sensing and ground-truthing in these regions is particularly important as geologic, seismicity and hydrologic data may be limited here due to the recency of infrastructural development. Monitoring ongoing processes and evaluating the remotely sensed data in terms of recurrence of events will greatly enhance our ability to assess and mitigate natural hazards.
Dokument 1: Foliensatz | Dokument 2: Abstract
Interdisziplinäres Zentrum für Musterdynamik und Angewandte Fernerkundung Workshop vom 9. - 10. Februar 2006 Y1 - 2006 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-7063 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ramezani Ziarani, Maryam A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo A1 - Schmidt, Torsten A1 - Wickert, Jens A1 - de la Torre, Alejandro A1 - Hierro, Rodrigo T1 - Using Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) and Dew-Point Temperature to Characterize Rainfall-Extreme Events in the South-Central Andes T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - The interactions between atmosphere and steep topography in the eastern south–central Andes result in complex relations with inhomogenous rainfall distributions. The atmospheric conditions leading to deep convection and extreme rainfall and their spatial patterns—both at the valley and mountain-belt scales—are not well understood. In this study, we aim to identify the dominant atmospheric conditions and their spatial variability by analyzing the convective available potential energy (CAPE) and dew-point temperature (Td). We explain the crucial effect of temperature on extreme rainfall generation along the steep climatic and topographic gradients in the NW Argentine Andes stretching from the low-elevation eastern foreland to the high-elevation central Andean Plateau in the west. Our analysis relies on version 2.0 of the ECMWF’s (European Centre for Medium-RangeWeather Forecasts) Re-Analysis (ERA-interim) data and TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) data. We make the following key observations: First, we observe distinctive gradients along and across strike of the Andes in dew-point temperature and CAPE that both control rainfall distributions. Second, we identify a nonlinear correlation between rainfall and a combination of dew-point temperature and CAPE through a multivariable regression analysis. The correlation changes in space along the climatic and topographic gradients and helps to explain controlling factors for extreme-rainfall generation. Third, we observe more contribution (or higher importance) of Td in the tropical low-elevation foreland and intermediate-elevation areas as compared to the high-elevation central Andean Plateau for 90th percentile rainfall. In contrast, we observe a higher contribution of CAPE in the intermediate-elevation area between low and high elevation, especially in the transition zone between the tropical and subtropical areas for the 90th percentile rainfall. Fourth, we find that the parameters of the multivariable regression using CAPE and Td can explain rainfall with higher statistical significance for the 90th percentile compared to lower rainfall percentiles. Based on our results, the spatial pattern of rainfall-extreme events during the past ∼16 years can be described by a combination of dew-point temperature and CAPE in the south–central Andes. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 771 KW - eastern south–central Andes KW - extreme rainfall KW - deep convection KW - convective available potential energy KW - dew-point temperature Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-438865 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 771 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Milewski, Robert A1 - Chabrillat, Sabine A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo T1 - Analyses of Namibian Seasonal Salt Pan Crust Dynamics and Climatic Drivers Using Landsat 8 Time-Series and Ground Data T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Salt pans are highly dynamic environments that are difficult to study by in situ methods because of their harsh climatic conditions and large spatial areas. Remote sensing can help to elucidate their environmental dynamics and provide important constraints regarding their sedimentological, mineralogical, and hydrological evolution. This study utilizes spaceborne multitemporal multispectral optical data combined with spectral endmembers to document spatial distribution of surface crust types over time on the Omongwa pan located in the Namibian Kalahari. For this purpose, 49 surface samples were collected for spectral and mineralogical characterization during three field campaigns (2014–2016) reflecting different seasons and surface conditions of the salt pan. An approach was developed to allow the spatiotemporal analysis of the salt pan crust dynamics in a dense time-series consisting of 77 Landsat 8 cloud-free scenes between 2014 and 2017, covering at least three major wet–dry cycles. The established spectral analysis technique Sequential Maximum Angle Convex Cone (SMACC) extraction method was used to derive image endmembers from the Landsat time-series stack. Evaluation of the extracted endmember set revealed that the multispectral data allowed the differentiation of four endmembers associated with mineralogical mixtures of the crust’s composition in dry conditions and three endmembers associated with flooded or muddy pan conditions. The dry crust endmember spectra have been identified in relation to visible, near infrared, and short-wave infrared (VNIR–SWIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analyses of the collected surface samples. According these results, the spectral endmembers are interpreted as efflorescent halite crust, mixed halite–gypsum crust, mixed calcite quartz sepiolite crust, and gypsum crust. For each Landsat scene the spatial distribution of these crust types was mapped with the Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) method and significant spatiotemporal dynamics of the major surface crust types were observed. Further, the surface crust dynamics were analyzed in comparison with the pan’s moisture regime and other climatic parameters. The results show that the crust dynamics are mainly driven by flooding events in the wet season, but are also influenced by temperature and aeolian activity in the dry season. The approach utilized in this study combines the advantages of multitemporal satellite data for temporal event characterization with advantages from hyperspectral methods for the image and ground data analyses that allow improved mineralogical differentiation and characterization. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 988 KW - salt pan KW - playa KW - spectral analysis KW - crust KW - saline pan cycle KW - evaporites KW - time-series mapping Y1 - 2020 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-475685 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 988 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Ramezani Ziarani, Maryam A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo A1 - Schmidt, Torsten A1 - Wickert, Jens A1 - de la Torre, Alejandro A1 - Deng, Zhiguo A1 - Calori, Andrea T1 - A model for the relationship between rainfall, GNSS-derived integrated water vapour, and CAPE in the eastern central Andes T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Atmospheric water vapour content is a key variable that controls the development of deep convective storms and rainfall extremes over the central Andes. Direct measurements of water vapour are challenging; however, recent developments in microwave processing allow the use of phase delays from L-band radar to measure the water vapour content throughout the atmosphere: Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)-based integrated water vapour (IWV) monitoring shows promising results to measure vertically integrated water vapour at high temporal resolutions. Previous works also identified convective available potential energy (CAPE) as a key climatic variable for the formation of deep convective storms and rainfall in the central Andes. Our analysis relies on GNSS data from the Argentine Continuous Satellite Monitoring Network, Red Argentina de Monitoreo Satelital Continuo (RAMSAC) network from 1999 to 2013. CAPE is derived from version 2.0 of the ECMWF’s (European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts) Re-Analysis (ERA-interim) and rainfall from the TRMM (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission) product. In this study, we first analyse the rainfall characteristics of two GNSS-IWV stations by comparing their complementary cumulative distribution function (CCDF). Second, we separately derive the relation between rainfall vs. CAPE and GNSS-IWV. Based on our distribution fitting analysis, we observe an exponential relation of rainfall to GNSS-IWV. In contrast, we report a power-law relationship between the daily mean value of rainfall and CAPE at the GNSS-IWV station locations in the eastern central Andes that is close to the theoretical relationship based on parcel theory. Third, we generate a joint regression model through a multivariable regression analysis using CAPE and GNSS-IWV to explain the contribution of both variables in the presence of each other to extreme rainfall during the austral summer season. We found that rainfall can be characterised with a higher statistical significance for higher rainfall quantiles, e.g., the 0.9 quantile based on goodness-of-fit criterion for quantile regression. We observed different contributions of CAPE and GNSS-IWV to rainfall for each station for the 0.9 quantile. Fourth, we identify the temporal relation between extreme rainfall (the 90th, 95th, and 99th percentiles) and both GNSS-IWV and CAPE at 6 h time steps. We observed an increase before the rainfall event and at the time of peak rainfall—both for GNSS-integrated water vapour and CAPE. We show higher values of CAPE and GNSS-IWV for higher rainfall percentiles (99th and 95th percentiles) compared to the 90th percentile at a 6-h temporal scale. Based on our correlation analyses and the dynamics of the time series, we show that both GNSS-IWV and CAPE had comparable magnitudes, and we argue to consider both climatic variables when investigating their effect on rainfall extremes. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 1172 KW - Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) KW - GNSS-integrated water vapour KW - convective available potential energy (CAPE) KW - extreme rainfall KW - TRMM Y1 - 2021 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-523256 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 1172 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Smith, Taylor A1 - Rheinwalt, Aljoscha A1 - Bookhagen, Bodo T1 - Determining the optimal grid resolution for topographic analysis on an airborne lidar dataset T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - Digital elevation models (DEMs) are a gridded representation of the surface of the Earth and typically contain uncertainties due to data collection and processing. Slope and aspect estimates on a DEM contain errors and uncertainties inherited from the representation of a continuous surface as a grid (referred to as truncation error; TE) and from any DEM uncertainty. We analyze in detail the impacts of TE and propagated elevation uncertainty (PEU) on slope and aspect. Using synthetic data as a control, we define functions to quantify both TE and PEU for arbitrary grids. We then develop a quality metric which captures the combined impact of both TE and PEU on the calculation of topographic metrics. Our quality metric allows us to examine the spatial patterns of error and uncertainty in topographic metrics and to compare calculations on DEMs of different sizes and accuracies. Using lidar data with point density of ∼10 pts m−2 covering Santa Cruz Island in southern California, we are able to generate DEMs and uncertainty estimates at several grid resolutions. Slope (aspect) errors on the 1 m dataset are on average 0.3∘ (0.9∘) from TE and 5.5∘ (14.5∘) from PEU. We calculate an optimal DEM resolution for our SCI lidar dataset of 4 m that minimizes the error bounds on topographic metric calculations due to the combined influence of TE and PEU for both slope and aspect calculations over the entire SCI. Average slope (aspect) errors from the 4 m DEM are 0.25∘ (0.75∘) from TE and 5∘ (12.5∘) from PEU. While the smallest grid resolution possible from the high-density SCI lidar is not necessarily optimal for calculating topographic metrics, high point-density data are essential for measuring DEM uncertainty across a range of resolutions. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 725 KW - Digital Elevation Model KW - River Incision Model KW - Accuracy Asseessment KW - Landscape Response KW - Error KW - Slope KW - Uncertainties KW - Extraction KW - Expression KW - Patterns Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-430165 SN - 1866-8372 IS - 725 SP - 475 EP - 489 ER -