Planation surface extraction and quantitative analysis based on high-resolution digital elevation models

Planation Surface is one of very important issues in the geomorphological research, and plays a major role for reconstructing the evolutional history of landforms in local region. By using remote sensing and geographical information systems, this article discussed the creation of Digital Elevation Models (DEM) in the area of eastern Qilian Mountains, northeastern to Qinghai-Xizang Plateau, and integrtion of both DEM and Landset TM images. Then the characteristics of 3D geomorphological Imagery of the northeastern Qilian Mountains were discussed, and the topographic profiles at several parts of the DEM were got. On the basis of analyzing the system of geomorphological parameters on the planation surface, the exact extent of the planation surface on the eastern Qilian Mountain was got by using the supervised classification technique in the field of image processing. The great potential of this technique was discovered on the analysis of planaion.