Digital elevation models (DEMs) are very convenient for modeling water flow. Some of the applications include delineation of watersheds, flowlines, or deriving useful other useful measures such as the ‘height above nearest drainage’ (HAND, link to another post on this). As a consequence of climate change, the frequency of extreme precipitation events is expected to increase in the future. Therefore, knowing the whereabouts of water is highly relevant and an important tool for the management of surface water in the landscape.
Knowing the depth of in aquatic environments are of interest to many e.g. sailors in coastal waters or anglers in lakes. We can measure the depth at different geographic coordinates and use this information to produce bathymetric maps and contour lines. Often however, measurements are only obtained from relatively few points which means that interpolation is required to produce continuous and pretty maps. Higher quality maps can be produced using modern sonar and echo-sounder technology but this may also require gaps to be interpolated.
Rain, rain and more rain - 2019 was a very wet year in Denmark and especially September and October were very rainy (DR news). The year ended with 905.2 mm which tied the previous record from 1999. The normal amount is around 700 mm. It continued to rain in 2020 with February and already on February 23 the previous record was surpassed (DR news). The extreme amount of water caused flooding in several parts of Denmark.