A Novel Method to Identify Radial Drainage Based on Morphological Features

Abstract

The automatic detection and accurate characterization of drainage patterns are of primary importance for interpreting the regional geologic origin and the features of the regional geological structure. However, there are few studies regarding the identification of cross-basin drainage patterns. In addition, the automatic level of the current approaches needs to be further improved. As a typical type of cross-basin drainage pattern, radial drainage (RD) has unique spatial morphological features: diverging from the center to the surrounding area, developing in adjacent sections of multiple basins, and having a number of source nodes that is not smaller than the number of its outlet nodes. Based on these morphological features, this study aims to develop a novel method for automatic identification of RD using a feature-matching algorithm. The experiment in Mount Lu demonstrates that the proposed method was efficient in RD identification. In this study area, the RDs were identified, and there were no false or missed judgments, which was verified through experts. The proposed method not only helps to detect cross-basin drainage patterns, RD, and centripetal drainage but also has a unique advantage in identifying geographical scenes with complex spatial structures.