Automated Landform Classification of China Based on Hammond’s Method

Abstract

The automatic classification of Macro landforms was processed with the program developed by Hammond’s Manual procedures, which based on properties of slope, local relief, and profile type, which consists of 5 landform types, 24 landform class and 96 landform subclasses. This program identified landform types by moving a square window with size of 9.8 km × 9.8 km. The data includes 816 sheets of topological map with a scale of 1:250,000. The DEM were buildup with the contours and mark points based on this data with a cell size of 200 m, and merge into one sheet. The automated classification was processed on this DEM data with a AML program of ArcGIS 10.X Workstation. The result indicates it produced a classification that has good resemblance to the landforms in China. The maps were produced respectively with 5 types, 16 classes and, 90 subclasses The 5 Landform types of landforms were Plains (PLA), 20.25% of whole areas; Tablelands (TAB) of 3.56%; Plains with Hills or Mountains (PHM) of 32.84%; Open Hills and Mountains (OHM) of 18.72%; Hills and Mountains (HM) of 24.63%. In the result of 24 landform classes, there are not some classes, such as irregular plains with low relief; open very low hills, open low hills; very low hills, low hills, moderate hills. The result of 96 landform subclass is similar to the 24 class.