Suitability assessment of global, continental and national digital elevation models for geomorphological analyses in Italy

Digital elevation models (DEMs) represent a fundamental resource in geomorphological analysis. The increasing availability of open-access DEMs over wide areas is advantageous, but requires an evaluation DEM quality and errors. This work applies hierarchical assessment global, continental national Italy order to explore the differences analyze vertical accuracy, spatial error distribution agreement morphometric measurements. selected are compared with local reference data as ground points dataset, extracted from geodetic network, regional at high resolution, through both qualitative quantitative approach. results identify limits potentialities DEMs, showing accuracy errors height representation, also affected by topographic characteristics surface, such steep slope mountain zones some defects hydromorphological derivatives that could condition applications.