Local relief (LR) mainly describes the complexity of the Earth’s surface at large spatial scales and reflects the degree to which the Earth’s surface is incised by exogenic agents. This chapter probes the methodology of extracting LR from a 1-km DEM and discusses the large-scale geomorphological characteristics of China. It proves that the optimum unit for measuring LR is 42.25km2. Analyses of the LR map show that most areas in China have mountainous relief (200 < LR < 600m), and the higher the LR, the lower the proportion of the national territory. From space, LR shows obvious differences from East to West and from NE to SW. Moreover, the spatial distribution of LR exhibits three wavy levels from North to South and four wavy levels from SE to NW. Compared with the morphological classes of a published geomorphologic map, LR exhibits similarly in Highest mountain, High mid-mountain and High mountain areas. Additionally, the LR values in the Loess Plateau change between values in Low-middle mountain and values in Low mountain. This study shows that the geomorphologic characteristic of the whole of China could be well represented by the LR derived from the DEM. It carries sufficient physiographic information and can provide an important basis for further quantitative classification of relief forms.
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Aili, L. (2008). DEM-based Analysis of Local Relief. In: Zhou, Q., Lees, B., Tang, Ga. (eds) Advances in Digital Terrain Analysis. Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-77800-4_10
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