Utilization of Thematic Mappers Data for the Comparison of Methods to Create Watersheds

Delineation of watersheds is one of the most basic steps for water resource management and National Park management. The purpose of this study is to investigate how to utilize Thematic Mappers scenes to compare watersheds created by running a model with those produced by digitizing topographic maps of Keum River basin. A methodology is designed and tested using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing to map areas with various thematic maps. A CAD data on watersheds from the Decision Support system for Water Quality is converted into GIS format. The digital elevation model with 100-meter resolution is used to create watershed by cumulative watershed method. TM scenes are also classified by new procedures including stacking method, NDVI, NDWI, and unsupervised classification methods. To evaluate the relative correctness Kyerongsan National Park was studied intensively whose area was divided into 6 watersheds in both cases. The boundaries of watershed from the model are less correct than those of the topographic maps. This result shows that automated watershed creating system needs higher-resolution digital elevation model than 100-meters.