ArcEvolve: A Suite of GIS Tools for Assessing Landform Evolution

This paper describes the tools developed to link the SIBERIA model with a GIS. SIBERIA simulates the evolution of landforms within a catchment using digital elevation data. Integration of SIBERIA with a GIS provides easier access to the model for non-specialist users, and also extends model functionality. The complexity of the model means that integrating the two technologies using an ‘embedded’ approach is not feasible. However, by using a ‘tightly-coupled’ approach the model and the GIS retain separate executables and memory space but share the database and provides a single integrated interface to the user. In addition, this approach enables the processing and analytical capabilities of the GIS for the analysis of SIBERIA output. The suite of tools developed to link SIBERIA with the ArcView® GIS package have been assembled into an ArcView® extension named ‘ArcEvolve’. The functionality ArcEvolve adds to the GIS graphical user interface is grouped into two parts. The first group contains components relating to the user interface including; (i) import/export utilities for the different SIBERIA native format files; (ii) access through dialog boxes to the creation and management of a SIBERIA parameter database; and (iii) running the model. The second group includes functionality for the geomorphometric analysis of digital elevation data, the primary output of SIBERIA. The geomorphic statistics adapted for ArcEvolve include the width function, hypsometric curve, cumulative area distribution, area-slope relationship, denudation rate and volumetric change. These descriptors are important measures of catchment geomorphology and hydrology and have been successfully used to quantify and compare SIBERIA derived landscapes with natural landscapes.