Effects of spatial resolution on slope and aspect derivation for regional-scale analysis

This paper investigates differences between morphometric parameters (slope and aspect) derived from a resampled DEM and resampled morphometric data derived from a medium resolution DEM, with examples for three study areas in South America selected to represent flatlands, hilly terrain, and mountain ranges. Using a low resolution DEM for regional scale morphometric analysis is not an optimal choice, since attenuation of elevation will strongly affect the distribution of calculated parameters. Unless bounded by computational constraints, one should choose to derive basic morphometric parameters from higher resolution data, and resample it to a coarser resolution as needed.