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Water in the Landscape: A Review of Contemporary Flow Routing Algorithms

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Advances in Digital Terrain Analysis

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Geoinformation and Cartography ((LNGC))

Abstract

This chapter reviews the various flow routing algorithms that simulate the distribution and flow of water across landscapes. The distinguishing characteristics of nine such algorithms and the experiments that have been conducted to evaluate their performance over the past 15 years are discussed. From there, we consider three sets of enduring challenges: (1) the role of scale and feedback between soil and water, and the need to consider these issues when characterizing the properties of both; (2) the need for dynamic flow routing algorithms and related indices in many landscapes; and (3) some of the as yet unrealized opportunities for treating space and time as continuous variables in the representation of soil water properties. The chapter concludes by noting the current state-of-the-art and where we might go from here

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Authors
  1. John P. WILSON
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  2. Graeme AGGETT
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  3. DENG Yongxin
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  4. Christine S. LAM
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geography, Hong Kong Baptist University, Kowlon Tong, Kowlooon, Hong Kong/PR China

    Qiming Zhou (Prof.) (Prof.)

  2. The University of New South Wales at ADFA, ACT 2600, Australia

    Brian Lees (Prof.) (Prof.)

  3. Key Laboratory of Virtual Geographic Environment, Nanjing Normal University, 210046 Nanjing, China, People’s Republic

    Guo-an Tang (Prof.) (Prof.)

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WILSON, J., AGGETT, G., Yongxin, D., LAM, C. (2008). Water in the Landscape: A Review of Contemporary Flow Routing Algorithms. 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_12

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