Sensitivity of a Floodplain Hydrodynamic Model to Satellite-Based DEM Scale and Accuracy: Case Study—The Atchafalaya Basin

Remote Sensing

Hahn Chul Jung¹  Michael F. Jasinski²  Guy J-P. Schumann³  George Petropoulos³ 

[1] Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI), 10210 Greenbelt Road, Lanham, MD 20706, USA;Hydrological Sciences Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, 8800 Greenbelt Road, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; E-Mail:;id="af1-remotesensing-07-07938">1Science Systems and Applications, Inc. (SSAI), 10210 Greenbelt Road, Lanham, MD 20706, U

关键词: Atchafalaya;    digital elevation model;    floodplain;    hydrodynamic model;    Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission;   

DOI  :  10.3390/rs70607938

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

The hydrodynamics of low-lying riverine floodplains and wetlands play a critical role in hydrology and ecosystem processes. Because small topographic features affect floodplain storage and flow velocity, a hydrodynamic model setup of these regions imposes more stringent requirements on the input Digital Elevation Model (DEM) compared to upland regions with comparatively high slopes. This current study provides a systematic approach to evaluate the required relative vertical accuracy and spatial resolution of current and future satellite-based altimeters within the context of DEM requirements for 2-D floodplain hydrodynamic models. A case study is presented for the Atchafalaya Basin with a model domain of 1190 km². The approach analyzes the sensitivity of modeled floodplain water elevation and velocity to typical satellite-based DEM grid-box scale and vertical error, using a previously calibrated version of the physically-based flood inundation model (LISFLOOD-ACC). Results indicate a trade-off relationship between DEM relative vertical error and grid-box size. Higher resolution models are the most sensitive to vertical accuracy, but the impact diminishes at coarser resolutions because of spatial averaging. The results provide guidance to engineers and scientists when defining the observation scales of future altimetry missions such as the Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) mission from the perspective of numerical modeling requirements for large floodplains of O[10³] km² and greater.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2015 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.