Regional features of topographic relief over the Loess Plateau, China: evidence from ensemble empirical mode decomposition

Abstract

Landforms with similar surface matter compositions, endogenic and exogenic forces, and development histories tend to exhibit significant degrees of self-similarity in morphology and spatial variation. In loess hill–gully areas, ridges and hills have similar topographic relief characteristics and present nearly periodic variations of similar repeating structures at certain spatial scales, which is termed the topographic relief period (TRP). This is a relatively new concept, which is different from the degree of relief, and describes the fluctuations of the terrain from both horizontal and vertical (cross-section) perspectives, which can be used for in-depth analysis of 2-D topographic relief features. This technique provides a new perspective for understanding the macro characteristics and differentiation patterns of loess landforms. We investigate TRP variation features of different landforms on the Loess Plateau, China, by extracting catchment boundary profiles (CBPs) from 5 m resolution digital elevation model (DEM) data. These profiles were subjected to temporal-frequency analysis using the ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) method. The results showed that loess landforms are characterized by significant regional topographic relief; the CBP of 14 sample areas exhibited an overall pattern of decreasing TRPs and increasing topographic relief spatial frequencies from south to north. According to the TRPs and topographic relief characteristics, the topographic relief of the Loess Plateau was divided into four types that have obvious regional differences. The findings of this study enrich the theories and methods for digital terrain data analysis of the Loess Plateau. Future study should undertake a more in-depth investigation regarding the complexity of the region and to address the limitations of the EEMD method.

Keywords

catchment boundary profile / topographic relief period / ensemble empirical mode decomposition / Loess Plateau

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful for the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41930102, 51974314, 41671389 and 41871313). We also thank the professor Guo’an Tang for his significant supervision and the professor Wolfgang Wagner for his critical feedback. We really appreciate the editors and anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments for improving our manuscript.

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