Comparison and Validation of Elevation Data at Selected Ground Control Points and Terrain Derivatives Derived from Different Digital Elevation Models

Digital elevation model (DEM) is a precisely defined 3D representation of terrain surface. DEM from satellite imageries have grown in popularity over the last decade, with a wide range of applications. It gives hydrologists and geomorphologists a powerful tool to investigate the relationship between basic geomorphic processes and landforms. The grid size, spatial variation, and vertical accuracy are among the most important characteristics of elevation data sources while determining the parametric analysis of geomorphic metrics. Using ground control points as a reference level, researchers can determine the elevation accuracy of the present generation of global DEM of different resolutions. The current research is focusing primarily on DEM-based comparative analysis under two different categories of elevation data and topographic attributes for the selection of the most accurate DEM in the area. Some significant DEM (ASTER, SRTM, Cartosat, and ALOS) are used in this study, and different descriptive error statistics (RMSE, MAE, and SD) are used to estimate their best quality. The validation suggests that the Cartosat-1(10 m) shows relatively high vertical accuracy (RMSE = 46.0; MAE = 13.0; SD = 46.0) and SRTM has the lowest (RMSE = 52.0; MAE = 19.0; SD = 52.7). The study area has a gradually undulating topography and a drainage network of 6th order. ALOS, SRTM, and Cartosat have lower mean elevation values than ASTER; also, there are visible differences in stream parameters as well. The area is structurally controlled, as indicated by the mean bifurcation ratio, which ranges from 3.8 to 4.4. As per the visual analysis, the contours generated from DEM with similar contour intervals (CI) do not align with each other. All DEM performed well but their statistical values indicate that the effect of resolution impacts hard on the output generated. © 2023, The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.