Extracting topographic characteristics of landforms typical of Canadian agricultural landscapes for agri-environmental modeling. I. Methodology

Li, S., Lobb, D. A., McConkey, B. G., MacMillan, R. A., Moulin, A. and Fraser, W. R. 2011. Extracting topographic characteristics of landforms typical of Canadian agricultural landscapes for agri-environmental modeling. I. Methodology. Can. J. Soil Sci. 91: 251–266. Soil and topographic information are key inputs for many agri-environmental models and there are linkages between soil and topography at the field scale. A major source of soil data is soil databases established based on field soil survey. Although both soil and topographic information are recorded in field soil surveys, the nominal nature of the topographic data has limited their use in agri-environmental models. In this study, we developed a methodology to extract various topographic derivatives and to classify the landscape into landform elements with distinctive topographic characteristics based on detailed analyses of fine resolution digital elevation models. Data obtained from these analyses were used to calculate a representative two-di...