Satellite stereo data for dem surfaces and derivatives

Various attributes can be derived from Digital Elevation Model (DEM), which are essential to analyze watershed physical characteristics. This paper discusses utility and accuracy of satellite DEM surfaces and their derivatives. Facilities available in various software packages were compared to generate DEM from satellite data and other sources. For test site at Chamba, Uttaranchal, DEMs produced from various algorithms were evaluated for accuracy of surface and its derivatives. Most of the algorithms have shown correlation coefficient of 0.99 and above but the desirable maximum error in spot height (1/5 of contour interval) is not achieved. Slope and aspect produced from various algorithms were comparable around 70-80%. Comparison of DEM surface and its derivatives were attempted for test sites at Shimla and Nahan using IRS-1C and SPOT PAN stereo pair, respectively. Model accuracy has shown that error in height is higher than planimetry. Surface derivatives from stereo DEM for Shimla and Nahan test sites have shown an overall accuracy of 56.5% and 59.2% for slope; 49.79% and 71.21% for aspect and 74.15% for topographic level slicing, respectively. Accuracy has improved when observed class value was lowered or put-up by one unit.