ARS | Publication request: Topaz User Manual

Submitted to: Grazinglands Research Laboratory Miscellaneous Publication
Publication Type: Government Publication
Publication Acceptance Date: April 1, 2000
Publication Date: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Drainage divides, landscape slope, hillslope area, channel network and many other landscape characteristics can be determined automatically by computer programs from digital representations of the landscape topography. Landscape characteristics are often needed in runoff, erosion, water quality, and soil and water conservation investigations. A computer program to automatically determine these landscape characteristics has been developed by the USDA, Agricultural Research Service, Grazinglands Research Laboratory, El Reno, Oklahoma, and is being distributed to customers for research, engineering and educational applications. This manuscript is the User Manual that helps the user apply the computer program. The User Manual briefly describes the computer program and contains instructions on the selection of landscape data and evaluation options. It also identifies the different landscape characteristics that the user can obtain from the computer program. The data produced by the computer program is presented in either tabular form or as data files that are read by other computer programs.

Technical Abstract: A variety of drainage characteristics of landscape topography can be determined by computer program from Digital Elevation Models. This manuscript is the User Manual for the computer program TOPAZ version 3.1. The manual first gives a brief overview of software TOPAZ and its operation. TOPAZ consists of five modules. Each module is treated in a different chapter that describes the input files, input parameters, user options and interactive procedures. The manual also provides examples of input and output files.