Exploring hydrologic analyses with TauDEM

The TauDEM (short form for Terrain Analysis Using Digital Elevation Models) environment contains a suite of tools with a specific emphasis on hydrologic and surface flow analysis. GRASS and SAGA also contain some algorithms that calculate similar parameters, but TauDEM has a comprehensive suite of tools in a single location.

We are going to continue using data from the provided ZIP file, and we will need the following files:

• Elevation file (dems_10m.dem, available in the GRASS data folder)

• Gauge shapefile (gauge.shp)

• Rivers file (hydl.shp)

To explore the functionality of TauDEM, we will characterize the watershed of Sun Creek upstream to the town of Fort Klamath, California. To accomplish this, we will perform the following tasks:

1. Remove pits from the DEM.

2. Calculate flow directions across the landscape.

3. Calculate the upstream area above Fort Klamath.

4. Calculate a stream network raster grid.

5. Create a watershed-specific vector stream network.

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