high-resolution dtm-based stratigraphic correlation of

320 Kartographische Nachrichten 6.2017

GIS IN GEOMORPHOLOGY | T. Bueche, K. Loesch: Stratigraphic correlation of fluvial terraces

Brückner 1901/09). The River Würm inter

sects the Würmian terminal moraines to the

north of the lake. Along this section several

fluvial terraces with various levels of eleva

tion exist indicating different stages of in

cision (Schulz 1989). The transverse valley

of River Würm has been mapped geomor

phologically by Schulz (1989), who outlines

all fluvial terraces in one class. Jerz (1987)

classified the terraces to be either Plenigla

cial Würmian or Late Würmian. No further

detailed stratigraphic differentiation of the

fluvial terraces along River Würm exists.

In this work, we present the identification

of fluvial terraces using a semiautomated

GIS approach. Terraces were indicated for a

terraced section of River Würm from a DTM

with high spatial resolution of 1 m. The

approach of terrace derivation from a DTM

is frequently used and several methods exist

(Hopkins & Snyder 2016) such as the fre

quently used semiautomated TerEx Toolbox

timeconsuming and requires financial re

sources (Jones et al. 2007; Stout & Belmont

2014). Further constraints can be obstructed

lines of sight, restrictions on land access, or

vegetation cover. Digital terrain models

(DTM) with high resolutions are ideally

suited for a systematic mapping of geomor

phological structures with high accuracy

(Passalacqua et al. 2012; Beckenbach et al.

2014; Dühnforth et al. 2017) and for its

geological interpretation. This detailed spa

tial information enables the creation of

maps indicating fluvial terraces related to

the same period of origin, which enhances

the understanding of the genesis of a river

valley and its various stages of incision.

The area around the Starnberger See (former

called Würmsee) on the Alpine foreland is

of great geomorphological interest as the

sequence of glacial deposits there is a type

section of the Würmian glaciation (Reuther

et al. 2011) and eponymous for it (Penck &

1 Introduction

River terraces are fundamental archives of

the landscape evolution (Kolb et al. 2016)

and their identification and localization is a

classic part of geomorphological mapping

(e. g. von Asselen & Seijmonsbergen 2006;

Stahl et al. 2013). Fluvial terraces provide

information about the geomorphological

genesis of valleys and the timing of the

river incision (Demoulin et al. 2007; Kolb et

al. 2016; Limaye & Lamb 2016) and hence

are also indicators for the environmental

conditions at the time of terrace formation

(Pavlopoulos et al. 2009; Fryirs & Brierley

2012). To be able to distinguish different

stages of the incision it is important to cor

relate terraces, treads, or steps at various

river segments chronostratigraphically. A

traditional geomorphological mapping and

groundbased measuring of fluvial terraces

for several sites and river segments is

High-resolution DTM-based stratigraphic correlation of fluvial terraces along River WürmStratigraphische Zuordnung von Flussterrassen entlang der Würm unter Verwendung eines hochaufgelösten Digitalen Geländemodells

Thomas Bueche, Kilian Loesch; München

Digital terrain models (DTM) with high resolution are ideally suited for a systematic mapping of geomorpholog-

ical structures, such as fluvial terraces, with high accuracy. We developed a semi-automatic GIS method to correlate

individual terrace treads stratigraphically using a 1 m DTM. It is applied to a gorge of River Würm (Southern

Bavaria, Germany). The approach yields suitable and plausible results and the presented map provides a clear and

easy overview of correlated terrace levels. The investigation enhances the understanding of the spatial and tem-

poral evolution of the valley and demonstrates the great benefit of high-resolution DTMs and the digital process-

ing of geodata for the geomorphological research.

n Keywords: High-resolution DTM, geomorphological mapping, fluvial terraces, geodata processing,

landscape evolution, River Würm

Hochaufgelöste Digitale Geländemodelle (DGM) sind bestens geeignet, um geomorphologische Strukturen wie Flussterrassen systematisch und mit hoher Genauigkeit zu kartieren. Wir haben einen semi-automatischen GIS-Ansatz entwickelt, der unter Verwendung eines 1-m-DGM die Ableitung von stratigraphisch zusammengehören-den Terrassenflächen ermöglicht. Die Methode wurde auf einen Abschnitt der Würm (Südbayern) angewendet und liefert geeignete und plausible Ergebnisse. Die resultierende Karte gibt einen strukturierten Überblick zur strati-graphischen Zuordnung der Terrassen. Die Untersuchung verbessert das Verständnis zur räumlichen und zeitlichen Genese des Tals und zeigt das große Potenzial von hochaufgelösten DGM in der digitalen Geodatenverarbeitung und für die geomorphologische Forschung.n Schlüsselwörter: Hochaufgelöstes DGM, geomorphologische Kartierung, Flussterrassen,

Geodatenverarbeitung, Landschaftsgenese, Würm

321Kartographische Nachrichten 6.2017

T. Bueche, K. Loesch: Stratigraphic correlation of fluvial terraces | GIS IN GEOMORPHOLOGY

(Nicoulin 2014; Stout & Belmont 2014), the

Rahnis method suggested by Walter et al.

(2007), and the method presented by Clubb

et al. (2017). Within these approaches, either

the step of a stratigraphic correlation of

terraces of the same incision stage along

different river segments is not included

(TerEx, Clubb et al. method), or previous

knowledge about the correlation of terraces

is required (Rahnis Method). Therefore, we

focus on the processing step of extrapolat

ing terrace surfaces to “infinity” in order to

correlate them with terraces at other sections

of the river without any requirements of

prior knowledge about the stratigraphic

genesis of the area. Three methods to ex

trapolate terrace surfaces are presented and

tested. The presentation of the results of the

fluvial terrace surface extrapolation is not

only a mere visualization of the terraces

(e. g. provided by TerrainView, Beckenbach

et al. 2014) but the mapping also displays

the identified stratigraphically correlated

treads along River Würm.

2 Study area

The River Würm intersects the ridges of the

terminal moraines of Würmian last glacial

maximum (LGM, Pleniglacial, Doppler et al.

2011) and stages of deglaciation of this last

glaciation between the settlements Leutstet

ten and Gauting (see Fig. 1). The gorge was

the main meltwater channel during the last

glaciation (Jerz 1987) and the river still

drains the Starnberger See, which fills the

overdeepened basin eroded by a lobe of the

IsarLoisach Glacier during the Pleistocene

(Preusser et al. 2010; Reuther et al. 2011).

This channel is also incised deeply into the

main Würmian alluvial fan called ‘Münch

ner Schotterebene’, which is adjacent to the

north of the moraine ridges and is dated to

be pleniglacial origin and can be also con

sidered as terrace (Doppler et al. 2011). In

addition, older moraine and gravel deposits

of the Rissian glaciation outcrop in this area.

In the study area (2 x 2 km square section)

numerous fluvial terraces exist along River

Würm (Fig. 2). The area covers a meander of

the river, where several treads divided by

sharp erosion edges have developed. The

extrapolation of the terrain is realized for

each terrace surface part of this “stairway”

of several treads (black outlined area in

Fig. 2). The geomorphologic units and ero

sion edges shown in Fig. 2 are derived from

the Geological Map Bavaria (scale 1:25000,

GK25, Bavarian Environment Agency, www.

lfu.bayern.de). The present level of the river

has an elevation of 582.3 m a.s.l. at the

southern margin of the study area, where the

peaks of the adjacent moraines are elevated

above with an elevation of 632.0 m a.s.l. The

River Würm leaves the study area in the

north at a height of 567.0 m a.s.l., incised by

35 m (to the left) and 26 m (to the right) into

the main Würmian Pleniglacial terrace.

3 Data and Methods

3.1 Data, software and

stratigraphic nomenclature

The analysis is based on a DTM with a spa

tial resolution (pixel size) of 1 x 1 m and an

elevation accuracy of < 0.1 m. The DTM is

a product of processed laser scan data pro

vided by the Bavarian State Office for Sur

vey and Geoinformation. All geodata pro

cessing is performed with ESRI ArcGIS 10.3

and specific tools used for the analyses are

implemented in the ArcToolbox provided by

ArcGIS. The nomenclature of the strati

graphic system used in this study refers to

Doppler et al. (2011).

3.2 Identification of terraces

and extrapolation approach

In a first step, relevant fluvial terraces with

in the area of interest (see black outlined

polygon in Fig. 2) are identified. We define

a fluvial terrace as a platform with a weak

inclination of an average slope smaller than

Fig. 1: Overview on the geomorphological setting in the area of Isar-Loisach Glacier (modiied after Rippl 2011 and Kleinmann 1995)

2°, which is delimited by terrain break lines.

Although the geological mapping (1:25.000)

includes erosional edges shown in Fig. 2,

these data are not provided in a sufficient

resolution. Therefore, we delineate the rele

vant terrain break lines from the DTM

manually. As they describe a discontinuity

of the local surface (Briese et al. 2009), these

line features trace highly inclined areas (see

Fig. 3) and can be derived from the terrain’s

slope. Furthermore, the vertical curvature

(Spatial Analyst Tool vertical curvature) is

calculated from the DTM highlighting sharp

edges of the relief and it is also taken into

account during the digitalization process of

the terrain break lines. The selection of

terraces and the delineation of break lines

are restricted to areas below the uppermost

level of the main pleniglacial terrace plain.

The final assessment of the terraces is based

on expert knowledge considering the slope

and break lines.

In total, seven terrace polygons are iden

tified to be part of the stairway at the

river meander (Fig. 3). These terraces are

chosen to be extrapolated to the extent of

the entire study area to correlate them

stratigraphically with other fluvial terraces.

All seven terraces are outlined by break

lines of the relief. Two cross sections of the

treads (A and B, see Fig. 3) visualize the

vertical and horizontal offsets between the

terraces.



The process of extrapolation of the fluvial

terraces to “infinity” is executed by gener

ating an (inclined) plane representing a

terrace surface. Four specifications are re

quired to define such a plane using vector

geometry:

• the coordinates (x and yvalues) of the

terrace center,

• the mean elevation height at the terrace

center,

• the aspect (Spatial Analyst Tool Aspect)

of the surface,

• and its dip, i. e. the mean slope (Spatial

Analyst Tool Slope).

In addition, to create a data set for the study

area the elevation heights of the square

vertexes have to be calculated, since there

exists no tool in ArcGIS to calculate an

inclined plane from the specifications listed

above. The coordinates for the center points

of each terrace are calculated using the

respective function of ArcGIS (Calculate

Geometry). Mean heights of the terrace sur

faces, respectively, are obtained by the

Spatial Analyst Tool Zonal Statistics as

Tables. Three approaches are tested to deter

mine the aspect and dip of each terrace:

1. The calculation based on values for aspect

and slope for each pixel of the terrace:

After the generation of these values for

all pixels of the DTM the mean slope and

the major aspect for each terrace is ob

tained using the Spatial Analyst Tool

Zonal Statistics as Tables. For this calcu

lation, only pixels with a slope <= 3° are

considered.

2. The calculation based on random points

– individual for each terrace: A new

vector data set of random points (n =

1,000) is created for each terrace restric

ted by its polygon, respectively. The

elevation height for each point is extrac

ted from the DTM to the attribute table

of the Point FeatureClass using the

Spatial Analyst Tool Extract Values to

Points. Based on this elevation informa

tion an inclined surface plain is interpo

lated applying the Spatial Analyst Tool

Trend. Subsequently, the aspect and

slope of this surface plain can be calcu

lated.

3. The calculation based on random points

– general for the study area: Instead of

calculating the aspect and dip for each

terrace, respectively, the general values

of those two required specifications are

determined for the entire study area as

suming to be representative for all terra

ce levels. For that purpose, a new vector

data set of random points (n = 50,000) is

created for the study area. Out of this

sample, points are selected (Select by

Location) for areas with a slope of <= 3°

to discard erosional edges. Subsequently,

the general aspect and slope of the enti

re study area is calculated following the

same steps as described for method 2.

Once the four specifications of a terrace

surface are obtained, it can be extrapolated

as an inclined plane to the whole study

area by calculating the elevation heights

(zvalues) of the four square vertexes of the

2 x 2 km polygon. A 3DPolygon is created

using the 3D Analyst Tool 3D-ASCII in

Feature-Class, specifying the x, y, and

zvalue.

The application of method 1 does not yield

a realistic distribution of pixel values for the

aspect. All values with a magnification of

45° (e. g. 0°, 45°, 90°, …) exceed any other

value approximately by the factor 2. As a

consequence, only these values are obtained

as major aspect for every terrace and, hence,

this method is discarded and not applied. An

explanation for this result could be the

preprocessing of the DTM data, when an

automated filter eliminates errors of the raw

laser scan data such as houses or vegetation

(Mr Boxler 2017, pers. communication,

8 August). Method 2 describes the individ

ual specifications of the aspect and dip of

the terraces very locally. This is suitable to

detect the correlation of terraces which are

in a short distance to the recent river. With

increasing heights of fluvial terraces above

the valley bottom, and accordingly increas

ing age, the terrain characteristics become

less dependent from the recent river chan

nel, but more represented by the wider en

vironment. Thus, method 2 (individual) is

found to be applicable only for the terrace

of lowest elevation (7) (Fig. 3), as the diver

gence of the aspect of the valley segment to

that of the general terrain is significant here.

For terraces 1–6 (Fig. 3), method 3 (general)

is applied.

3.3 Stratigraphic correlation of terraces

Fluvial terraces along the river are de

termined to correlate stratigraphically

when the difference of the elevation height

Fig. 2: Shaded relief derived from the 1 m resolution DTM (Geobasisdaten © Bavarian State Oice for Survey and Geoinformation) of the study area with geological units and erosion structures from the Geological Map Bavaria (scale 1:25000, GK25, Bavarian Environment Agency, www.lfu.bayern.de, map sheet Starnberg-Nord 7934). The area of interest containing the "stairway” of several luvial terraces is displayed by the black outlined polygon. The anthropogenic modiied areas do not include the gravel pits and streets due to the reduced resolution of the geological units



identified as correlated terraces even if they

are not completely delineated by break

lines.

4 Results

Fig. 5 shows the result of the stratigraphic

correlation of the fluvial terrace levels in the

study area. Additional to the seven terrace

levels, “interstages” are determined, when

terraces are intersected by the extrapolation

of two terrace levels. Those terrace levels,

which are not identified to be within a

1.5 m difference to an extrapolated terrace

surface, are correlated as an interstage to the

closest level (e. g. the yellowhatched terrace

in the northwest, which is accordingly in

dicated close to Terrace 3). The map shows

that several terraces could be correlated

directly to the extrapolated levels of the

stairway at the river meander. The existence

of a couple of interstages indicates an epi

sodic downcutting of the valley in many

small stages (Pierce et al. 2011). All older

terraces are located at the valley sides,

whereas lower surface levels partly retained

as older platforms above surrounded com

pletely by younger terraces. The extent of

the two highest levels of earliest develop

ment (Terraces 1 and 2) cover more than the

half of the area, which is incised into the

main Würmian pleniglacial terrace down

stream of the river meander. This suggests

surface of terrace 2 and the correlated are

as (marked in blue). The final assessment of

correlated areas is only realized (see. Fig. 5)

for those, which meet the specifications for

terraces defined above. Intersections of the

extrapolated terrace with the terrain at

highly inclined areas do not represent flu

vial terraces (e. g. blue line on right side

(west) of the valley, Fig. 4) and can hence

be discarded. Nevertheless, areas are also

to the extrapolated plain is smaller than 1.5

m. Thus, the difference in height is calcu

lated for each pixel of the DTM by convert

ing the output 3D vector data set of the

extrapolation process in a raster surface (3D

Analyst Tool Minus). Several thresholds for

the maximum difference between the ex

trapolated surface and terrain are tested and

1.5 m is found to yield the most realistic

value. Figure 4 visualizes the extrapolated

Fig. 3: Areas of the luvial terraces of the examined stairway are shown in coloured polygons. The background of the map igures the terrain’s slope displaying high values in dark shades. Two proile lines (A, C-D-E), orange; B, C-D-F, blue) trace the elevation of the steps of the terrain

Fig. 4: 3D visualization of the study area. The elevation (gray shades – bright: high, dark: low) is based on the 1 m DTM pictured with a vertical exaggeration by the factor of 7. The transparent yellow plain represents the extrapolated surface of terrace 2 (outlined in red). All blue areas marking pixels of the DTM within 1.5 m diference of height to the extrapolated inclined surface plain



gated river section is not mainly straight

but partly sinuously. This problem could

be addressed by the flexible application

of two methods to deduce the specifications

of dip and aspect for the surface extrapola

tion. The choice of the suitable method for

each terrace, respectively, can hardly be

automated and requires an individual deci

sion.

Beside the required expert knowledge, fur

ther limitations of this approach have to be

mentioned. The extrapolation approach

includes the assumption of a linear slope of

the terrain. As this simplification of the real

conditions does not trace any changes of

river channel slope, it induces errors for the

correlation of terrace surfaces. This effect

will intensify with increasing distance to the

extrapolated terrace surface. Hence, the

method is only suitable for examinations at

smaller scales.

The applied threshold for the maximum

vertical deviation of 1.5 m to correlate ter

race levels with the extrapolated treads is

found to yield realistic results. It is sitespe

cific and should be in the range from 50 to

75 % of the minimum separation in height

between the examined terraces (here: 2.2 m,

Fig. 3) to avoid too many correlations of

terraces to two treads on the one hand, and

terraces without intersection with any ex

trapolated terrace surface.

The presented approach differs from the

Rahnis method (Walter et al. 2007 in Hop

kins & Snyder 2016), which extrapolates

fluvial terraces to 3D surfaces based on

points manually set on several different

terrace treads. This approach enables a cor

relation of terraces of a broader environ

ment, but requires already previous knowl

edge of potential stratigraphic correlation of

terraces. As our method attains the correla

tion of individual terrace treads, it provides

the required information to be able to apply

the Rahnis method.

Despite the identified limitations, the meth

od can be evaluated as very practicable. The

obtained results provide a very detailed map,

which enables an interpretation of the gen

esis of the river channel. Due to the options

of different methods to derive the specifica

tions of dip and aspect for the surface ex

trapolation depending on the distance to the

recent river, the approach can be easily

transferred to other sites with complex

courses of valleys.

geodata processing, the analysis could be

performed without any groundbased meas

urements. However, this approach requires

expert knowledge and includes a process of

manual digitalization of terrain break lines.

Thus, it can only be characterized as a

semiautomated approach. Although auto

matic approaches exist to delineate break

lines from DTM data (e. g. Rutzinger et al.

2012), they hardly detect geomorphic struc

tures in continuous features, which is a re

quirement for those purposes.

All methods presented in this work to deter

mine the aspect and dip of terrace surfaces

include the specification of a threshold for

the maximum slope by the user. The herein

applied limit of 3° can be seen as a suitable

threshold to discard hillslopes and scarps.

Alterations of this slope threshold will have

an impact on the final identification of

terrace surfaces.

The process of terrace extrapolation is

complicated by the fact that the investi

the existence of a broad river valley during

the initial deepening in the Pleniglacial.

Furthermore, considering the geological

units of the geological mapping (Fig. 2),

it can be deduced that the evolution of

the shape of the valley to a narrow

gorge already took place before the Late

Glaciation period accompanied by progres

sive incision.

5 Discussion

The presented approach of extrapolating

terrace surfaces to correlate them with oth

er terraces along a river yields suitable and

plausible results, which does not require any

previous knowledge of tread correlations.

The method enables a very detailed mapping

of the terraced valley providing a clear and

easy overview of the correlated terrace

levels, which is an improvement to the vis

ualization tool TerrainView developed by

Beckenbach et al. (2014). By using solely

Fig. 5: Stratigraphic correlation of detected luvial terraces (labelled polygons) with other terrace levels in the study area. A correlation of an area is depicted by the same symbology as the extrapolated terrace. Hatched areas of two colours mark levels which were correlated to two terraces (interstages). Hatched terraces with only one colour show areas which were not within the height diference to be correlated. Their colour indicate the terrace with the smallest diference of height



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About the authors

Dr. Thomas Büche is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Geography of LudwigMaximiliansUniversity Munich. His research includes GISbased applications for analyses and visualization of the landscape topography, and the impact of climate and land use change on lake systems. His email: [email protected].

M. Sc. Kilian Loesch holds a degree in Environmental Systems and Sustainability from the Department of Geography at the LudwigMaximiliansUniver sity in Munich. His research interests include GISbased and modelling techniques to analyze environmental systems. A particular focus is set on analyses of environmental systems affected by climate change. His email: [email protected].

Manuscript submitted: 20171003 Accepted after review: 20171031

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6 Conclusion

In this study a detailed stratigraphic corre

lation of fluvial terraces along a section of

River Würm is presented based on DTM data

only, which requires no previous knowledge

of terrace level correlations. Beyond the

delineation of fluvial terraces, the presented

approach provides an analysis of the corre

lation of individual fluvial terraces at dif

ferent river sections, which can be trans

ferred to other areas. It is shown that the

method is applicable to river sections cov

ering meanders. The output results in a first

geomorphological mapping of the fluvial

terraces for the study area and benefits to a

better understanding of the spatial evolution

of this transverse valley. The investigation

demonstrates the very suitable applicability

of highresolution DTM processed with GIS

tools, without any survey in the field or

groundbased measuring, for the detailed

mapping and visualization of geomorpho

logical structures and its geological inter

pretation.

Acknowledgements

We thank for the financial support of the

study by the teaching and research pro

gramme Lehre@LMU sponsored by the

German Federal Ministry of Education and

Research (BMBF) (grant no 01PL17016)

providing funding for the DTM data. We

also thank two anonymous reviewers pro

viding constructive comments that im

proved the manuscript.

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high-resolution dtm-based stratigraphic correlation of

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