Floodplain morphometry extraction from a high-resolution digital elevation model: A simple algorithm for regional analysis studies

This letter introduces a fast algorithm for floodplain delineation. The underlying assumption of the proposed procedure is that the inundation depth used to define the lateral extent of the geomorphologic floodplain is proportional to the depth of the channel at bankfull flow, a relationship that emerged from a detailed and objective regional analysis. The bankfull and floodplain geometries extracted with the proposed algorithm over a wide range of scales revealed important connections between fluvial and hydrologic processes and showed that the nature of these connections is scale dependent.