The sensitivity analysis of DEM terrain texture characteristics based on Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix

Morphological characteristic analysis of landforms on a macro scale is a significant part of digital terrain analysis. The existing research of morphological characteristics of landform recurs to the spatial variation of topographic factors on micro scale. Effective analysis methods of morphological and structural characteristics of landform on macro scale are still in shortage. In this paper, Grey Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) is introduced into DEM based digital terrain analysis. Eleven typical landform sample areas in Shannxi Province of China are used as a case study for exploring the applicability and sensitivity of textual analysis models on multi levels. The main purpose is to describe the morphological and spatial structural features in terms of the directivity, scale invariance, rotation invariance, analysis range of models and DEM resolution based scale dependency. The feasibility for texture analysis on terrain morphology characteristics is testified and it could provide a reference for further digital terrain analysis.