Talk:Geomorphometry
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mentorsmentor 11:23, 27 March 2007 (UTC)From Mentorsmentor 27 March 2007 We suggest the following entry we have copied below is a timewasting joke. If our explanation for this (our opinion) is necessary we are prepared to give it by email. We do not even accept "Geomorphometry" as the accepted name of any specific discipline or activity. When does the OED say it was first used and how does the OED define the word? In what sense is "topography" used in the penultimate sentence? We would also very much like to know how a valid parameter can exist usefully for a stochastic activity. Mentorsmentor 11:23, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
"Geomorphometry is the science of quantitative land surface analysis. It gathers various mathematical, statistical and image processing techniques that can be used to quantify morphological, hydrological, ecological and other aspects of a land surface. Common synonyms for geomorphometry are geomorphological analysis, terrain morphometry or terrain analysis and land surface analysis. In simple terms, geomorphometry aims at extracting (land) surface parameters (morphometric, hydrological, climatic etc.) and objects (watersheds, stream networks, landforms etc.) using input digital land surface model (also known as digital elevation model) and parameterization software. Extracted surface parameters and objects can then be used, for example, to improve mapping and modelling of soils, vegetation, land use, geomorphological and geological features and similar. Although geomorphometry started with ideas of Brisson (1808) and Gauss (1827), the field did not much evolved until the construction of the first DEM (Miller and Laflame, 1958). With the rapid increase of sources of DEMs today (and especially due to the Shuttle radar topographic mission and LIDAR-based projects), extraction of land surface parameters is becoming more and more attractive to numerous fields ranging from precision agriculture, soil-landscape modelling, climatic and hydrological applications to urban planning, education and space research. The topography of almost all Earth has been today sampled or scanned, so that DEMs are available at resolutions of 100 m or better at global scale. Land surface parameters are today successfully used for both stochastic and process-based modelling, the only remaining issue being the level of detail and vertical accuracy of the DEM."
