PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2016, Vol. 35 ›› Issue (7): 870-877.doi: 10.18306/dlkxjz.2016.07.008

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Effects of different DEM spatial interpolation methods on soil erosion simulation:A case study of a typical gully of dry-hot valley based on USPED

Yali XU, Mingliang LUO*(), Beiyu LIANG, Xiaoli CHANG, Wei XIANG, Bin ZHANG   

  1. School of Land and Resources, China West Normal University, Nanchong 637009, Sichuan, China
  • Received:2016-01-01 Revised:2016-05-01 Online:2016-07-20 Published:2016-07-20
  • Contact: Mingliang LUO E-mail:lolean586@163.com

Abstract:

Digital elevation models (DEMs) have been widely used in soil erosion simulation, but how different interpolation methods affect the simulation results is not well researched. In this article, a typical gully in the dry-hot valley of the Jinsha River was selected as the case study area. First, field measurement of elevations of the gully was preformed. Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW), Disjunctive Kriging (DK), Spline with Tension (ST), and Local Polynomial Interpolation (LPI) methods were then used to produce high-precision DEMs of the gully. The United Stream Power-based Erosion Deposition (USPED) model was used to simulate the spatial distribution of erosion and deposition in the gully. The coefficient of relative difference was used to analyze the similarity of USPED results. The result shows that the precision of DEMs from high to low is: DK, LPI, IDW, and ST. The results of USPED simulation show that DK revealed the main distribution pattern of erosion and deposition, but IDW highlighted the details, and LPI and ST were in-between. The coefficient of relative difference shows that IDW was similar with other interpolation methods in soil erosion simulation, but when the layout of sampling points is reasonable and the density of the sampling points is sufficiently high, IDW is more suitable for soil erosion simulation using USPED.

Key words: soil erosion, spatial interpolation, USPED, coefficient of relative difference, gully