Thehorizontalaccuracyoftopographicdatarepresentedbydigitalelevationmodel(DEM)resolutionbringsaboutuncertaintiesinlandscapeprocessmodelingwithrasterGIS.Thispaperpresentsastudyontheeffectoftopographicvariabilityoncell-basedempiricalestimationofsoillossandsedimenttransport.AnoriginalDEMof10mresolutionforacasewatershedwasre-sampledtothreerealizationsofhighergridsizesforacomparativeexamination.EquationsbasedontheUSLEareappliedtothewatershedtocalculatesoillossfromeachcellandtotalsedimenttransporttostreams.ThestudyfoundthatthecalculatedtotalsoillossfromthewatersheddecreaseswiththeincreasingDEMresolutionwithalinearcorrelationasspatialvariabilityisreducedbycellaggregation.TheUSLEtopographicfactors(LS)extractedfromappliedDEMsrepresentspatialvariability,anddeterminetheestimationsasshowninthemodelingresults.ThecommonlyusedUSGS30mDEMappearstobeabletoreflectessentialspatialvariabilityandsuitablefortheempiricalestimation.TheappropriatenessofaDEMresolutionisdependentuponspecificlandscapecharacteristics,appliedmodelanditsparameterization.ThisworkattemptstoprovideageneralframeworkfortheresearchintheDEM-basedempiricalmodeling.
