Comparative Evaluation of Terrain Characteristics from SRTM and Aster Dems in South East Nigeria

Abstract

This study has clearly demonstrated that the results obtained from the different global available DEMs are not the same. In South Eastern Nigeria, this study has shown that ASTER performed better than SRTM modeling the Elevation of the study area, While SRTM performed better at hydrological modeling in the study area. The result shows that SRTM and ASTER GDEM can be used for hydrological modeling and Elevation modeling in the study area respectively. SRTM have shown to be a better DEM for hydrological modeling. The sub catchments delineated from SRTM compares favorably with that of the ALOS PALSAR DEM. The stream network delineated from SRTM is closely related to that obtained from the reference DEM. With the non-availability of up-to-date topographic map of the study area, this research work has further demonstrated that global elevation datasets have a good potential for topographical and hydrological modeling.