Numerical simulation of landscape evolution and water run-off on digital elevation models obtained from Pleiades

Abstract

This paper illustrates how the main physical laws proposed in landscape evolution models (LEMs) can be modeled by a system of three partial differential equations governing water run-off, stream incision, hill slope evolution and sedimentation. Several numerical experiments on high resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) obtained from image stereo pairs of the satellite Pleiades illustrate its potential to simulate the fine structure of the river network, and to understand the landscape morphology and its causes.

Keywords

• Landscape evolution model
• partial differential equations
• river networks
• conservation laws
• stream incision law
• detachment-limited and transport-limited erosion