Parallel computing of catchment basins of rivers in large digital elevation models

This paper describes a new fast and scalable parallel algorithm to automatically determine catchment basin of rivers in large digital elevation models (DEM for short). This algorithms is based on the construction of a minimal spanning tree, via a hierarchy of graphs, modeling the water route on the DEM. It does not need any preprocessing like stream burning on the initial DEM and tends to make the most of incomplete DEM. Efficiency and scalability have been tested on very large DEM.