Automatic extraction of drainage networks from digital terrain elevation data: a local network approach

This paper describes a local network approach for the automatic extraction of drainage networks from digital terrain elevation data (DTED). The extraction of drainage networks from topological data is one of the more important uses of such information. An extracted network may be used in many applications, such as determining drainage network metrics or selecting control points for image registration and mapping applications. In this research, a network of local processing units has been designed and applied to the automatic extraction of drainage networks. The results show that the network described is a promising tool for the extraction of drainage networks from DTED