Flow Accumulation (Recursive)

Author: O.Conrad (c) 2001
Menu: Terrain Analysis | Hydrology | Flow Accumulation | Alternatives

Description

Recursive upward processing of cells for calculation of flow accumulation and related parameters. This set of algorithms processes recursively all upwards connected cells until each cell of the DEM has been processed. Flow routing methods provided by this tool:

Deterministic 8 (aka D8, O'Callaghan & Mark 1984)
Rho 8 (Fairfield & Leymarie 1991)
Multiple Flow Direction (Freeman 1991, Quinn et al. 1991)
Deterministic Infinity (Tarboton 1997)

References

Fairfield, J. & Leymarie, P. (1991): Drainage networks from grid digital elevation models. Water Resources Research, 27:709-717. doi:10.1029/90WR02658.
Freeman, G.T. (1991): Calculating catchment area with divergent flow based on a regular grid. Computers and Geosciences, 17:413-22. doi:10.1016/0098-3004(91)90048-I.
O'Callaghan, J.F. & Mark, D.M. (1984): The extraction of drainage networks from digital elevation data. Computer Vision, Graphics and Image Processing, 28:323-344. doi:10.1016/S0734-189X(84)80011-0.
Quinn, P.F., Beven, K.J., Chevallier, P. & Planchon, O. (1991): The prediction of hillslope flow paths for distributed hydrological modelling using digital terrain models. Hydrological Processes, 5:59-79. doi:10.1002/hyp.3360050106.
Tarboton, D.G. (1997): A new method for the determination of flow directions and upslope areas in grid digital elevation models. Water Resources Research, Vol.33, No.2, p.309-319. doi:10.1029/96WR03137.

Parameters

	Name	Type	Identifier	Description	Constraints
Input	Elevation	grid, input	`ELEVATION`	-	-
	Sink Routes	grid, input, optional	`SINKROUTE`	-	-
	Weights	grid, input, optional	`WEIGHTS`	-	-
	Input for Mean over Catchment	grid, input, optional	`VAL_INPUT`	-	-
	Material for Accumulation	grid, input, optional	`ACCU_MATERIAL`	-	-
	Accumulation Target	grid, input	`ACCU_TARGET`	-	-
	Target Areas	grid, input, optional	`TARGETS`	-	-
Output	Flow Accumulation	grid, output	`FLOW`	-	-
	Mean over Catchment	grid, output	`VAL_MEAN`	-	-
	Accumulated Material	grid, output, optional	`ACCU_TOTAL`	-	-
	Accumulated Material (Left Side)	grid, output, optional	`ACCU_LEFT`	-	-
	Accumulated Material (Right Side)	grid, output, optional	`ACCU_RIGHT`	-	-
	Flow Path Length	grid, output, optional	`FLOW_LENGTH`	average distance that a cell's accumulated flow travelled	-
	Loss through Negative Weights	grid, output, optional	`WEIGHT_LOSS`	when using weights without support for negative flow: output of the absolute amount of negative flow that occurred	-
Options	Grid System	grid system	`PARAMETERS_GRID_SYSTEM`	-	-
	Flow Accumulation Unit	choice	`FLOW_UNIT`	-	Available Choices: [0] number of cells [1] cell area Default: 1
	Method	choice	`METHOD`	-	Available Choices: [0] Deterministic 8 [1] Rho 8 [2] Deterministic Infinity [3] Multiple Flow Direction Default: 3
	Convergence	floating point number	`CONVERGENCE`	Convergence factor for Multiple Flow Direction Algorithm (Freeman 1991)	Minimum: 0.000000 Default: 1.100000
	Contour Length	boolean	`MFD_CONTOUR`	Include (pseudo) contour length as additional weighting factor in multiple flow direction routing, reduces flow to diagonal neighbour cells by a factor of 0.71 (s. Quinn et al. 1991 for details).	Default: 0
	Prevent Negative Flow Accumulation	boolean	`NO_NEGATIVES`	when using weights: do not transport negative flow, set it to zero instead; useful e.g. when accumulating measures of water balance.	Default: 1

Command Line


Usage: saga_cmd ta_hydrology 1 [-ELEVATION ] [-SINKROUTE ] [-WEIGHTS ] [-FLOW ] [-VAL_INPUT ] [-VAL_MEAN ] [-ACCU_MATERIAL ] [-ACCU_TARGET ] [-ACCU_TOTAL ] [-ACCU_LEFT ] [-ACCU_RIGHT ] [-FLOW_UNIT ] [-TARGETS ] [-FLOW_LENGTH ] [-WEIGHT_LOSS ] [-METHOD ] [-CONVERGENCE ] [-MFD_CONTOUR ] [-NO_NEGATIVES ]
  -ELEVATION:     	Elevation
	grid, input
  -SINKROUTE:     	Sink Routes
	grid, input, optional
  -WEIGHTS:       	Weights
	grid, input, optional
  -FLOW:          	Flow Accumulation
	grid, output
  -VAL_INPUT:     	Input for Mean over Catchment
	grid, input, optional
  -VAL_MEAN:      	Mean over Catchment
	grid, output
  -ACCU_MATERIAL: 	Material for Accumulation
	grid, input, optional
  -ACCU_TARGET:   	Accumulation Target
	grid, input
  -ACCU_TOTAL:    	Accumulated Material
	grid, output, optional
  -ACCU_LEFT:     	Accumulated Material (Left Side)
	grid, output, optional
  -ACCU_RIGHT:    	Accumulated Material (Right Side)
	grid, output, optional
  -FLOW_UNIT:     	Flow Accumulation Unit
	choice
	Available Choices:
	[0] number of cells
	[1] cell area
	Default: 1
  -TARGETS:       	Target Areas
	grid, input, optional
  -FLOW_LENGTH:   	Flow Path Length
	grid, output, optional
  -WEIGHT_LOSS:   	Loss through Negative Weights
	grid, output, optional
  -METHOD:        	Method
	choice
	Available Choices:
	[0] Deterministic 8
	[1] Rho 8
	[2] Deterministic Infinity
	[3] Multiple Flow Direction
	Default: 3
  -CONVERGENCE:	Convergence
	floating point number
	Minimum: 0.000000
	Default: 1.100000
  -MFD_CONTOUR:   	Contour Length
	boolean
	Default: 0
  -NO_NEGATIVES:  	Prevent Negative Flow Accumulation
	boolean
	Default: 1