| Abstract: | Predictive models for calculating sediment yield and discharge require accurate areal data. Such models may be unrealistic when using digitized data given the potential error involved in compiling and digitizing thematic polygon maps. The estimation of boundary variability for digitized polygon maps of a 0·34 km2 area of badlands in Dinosaur Provincial Park, Alberta shows the effects of positional errors introduced during mapping and digitizing processes. Polygon overlay of maps of surface features and slopes produced high frequencies of very small polygons and some unlikely combinations of slopes and surface features, and decreased reliability in areal measurements in the composite map. At an epsilon band width of 0·7 m, a reasonable estimate of boundary variability, 31·7 per cent of the resultant overlaid map can be considered unreliable. |
