Estimation of roughness and zero-displacement heights over Baghdad utilizing remote sensing and GIS techniques

Abstract

The objective of this study was to estimate the height of roughness element (ZH) and zero-displacement length (Zd) for Baghdad city using remote sensing and GIS techniques and resources such as DEM, DSM, and shapefile. The difference between DEM and DSM produced digital height model which represents the height of the roughness element for the region, which was used to determine the zero-displacement height. The results showed that the variations in Zd values depend strongly on ZH. Rusafa had the highest Zd (15.8 m) while Dora had the lowest values (4.7 m). Thus, Baghdad city has medium density classification according to the results of Zd and ZH values.

Keywords

• digital surface model
• digital elevation model
• zero-displacement height
• roughness element height
• baghdad
• gis