Mathematical vector framework for gravity-specific land surface curvatures calculation from triangulated irregular networks

Land surface curvature (LSC) is a basic attribute of topography and influences local effects gravitational energy material transport. However, the calculation LSCs based on triangulated irregular networks (TINs) has not been fully studied, which restricts further geoscience studies TIN digital elevation models (DEMs). The triangular facets vertices are both expressions land surface; therefore, their adjacency relationship, can be calculated. In this study, we propose mathematical vector framework for LSC TINs. We define from perspectives tensor, slope normal contour direction vectors, then provide operators vertices. Next, mathematically simulated surface, find that TIN-based method exhibits similar scale as grid-based methods very low error sensitivity. addition, different real landform cases with various data sources, perform experiments involving concavity–convexity hillslope unit classification by using method. results show enhance performance TINs in over DEM methods. proposed improve other