摘要：We present a framework to characterize terrestrial functions—surficial and bottom
topographic regions that are represented, respectively, as raster digital elevation models (DEMs)
and digital bathymetric models (DBMs)—through analysis of flow fields that are simulated
via geodesic morphology. Characterization of such functions is done via a new
descriptor. Computation of this new descriptor involves the following steps: (i) basin in digital form
representing topographic fluctuations as an input, (ii) threshold decomposition of basin—that
consists of channelized and nonchannelized regions—into sets, (iii) proper indexing of these
sets to decide the marker set(s) and its (their) corresponding mask set(s), (iv) performing geodesic
propagation that provides basic flow field structures, and (v) finally providing a new basin
descriptor—geodesic spectrum. We demonstrated this five-step framework on five different
synthetic and/or realistic DEMs and/or DBMs. This study provides potentially invaluable insights to
further study the travel-time flood propagation within basins of both fluvial and tidal systems.
