Assessing Decadal Sediment Erosion Rates: Insights from Improved DEMs of Differencing (2024)
This study examines sediment erosion in Taiwan's Zhoukou River Basin over the past 30 years, focusing on the impact of extreme rainfall. Traditional methods measure erosion over different time scales, but we used a unique approach for decade-long calculations with global and regional digital elevation models (DEMs). Our new method, applying Fourier analysis, reduces vertical bias in DEMs. Spectral analysis helps correct vertical offsets. Erosion rates calculated through DEMs of Difference (DoD) show a significant drop in sediment export from 1990-2010 to 2011-2020 due to reduced extreme rainfall. The denudation rate decreased from 14.19 mm/yr to 10.46 mm/yr in the Zhoukou River Basin. Our method effectively estimates sediment transport rates using underutilized DEMs.