Evaluation of electronic land image manipulation technique for watershed characterization

Abstract The suitability of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and electronic land-image manipulation for watershed quantification was studied in a small British Columbia watershed with terrain varying from flat lowland to about 75% slope upland. Results suggest that DEM allows the creation of synthetic watershed images with contour overlays for accurate and economical landscape descriptions. Through the use of proper software, DEM also provides more accurate measurement watershed areas and profiles than the traditional planimetric procedures. With the increased availability of digitized topographic data and improved resolution of aerial photo and/or satellite landscape images, DEM will be a viable tool in the field of agricultural hydrology.