**5. Conclusion**

The results of the practical application of the optimization procedure in designing terraces and retention reservoirs within integrated territory protection verify its functionality and applicability. In cases when it is not clear in advance which of the potential torrential rainfall could be the most dangerous, the model will provide solutions with all chosen rainfalls types for the result to comply with the territory protection requirements.

The created model can be used to find either one optimal solution or, in case it is necessary to verify the position of the optimal solutions with the changes of some input conditions and requirements, more times in more versions with variables and coefficients modified by these changes. The possibility of multiple application of this model and to obtain a whole set of optimal solutions visualises much better the character and behaviour of the designed system in reactions to modifications of the input conditions and requirements and thus enables to improve significantly the process of making decisions about the design final shape.

**Chapter 3**

**Terrain Analysis for Locating Erosion Channels:**

Adam Pike, Tom Mueller, Eduardo Rienzi, Surendran Neelakantan, Blazan Mijatovic, Tasos Karathanasis and Marcos Rodrigues

Additional information is available at the end of the chapter

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/51526

for erosion channel identification [4].

**1. Introduction**

**Assessing LiDAR Data and Flow Direction Algorithm**

Terrain analysis can be used to locate concentrated flow erosion (e.g., ephemeral gully ero‐ sion) across landscapes. For example, studies have found that ephemeral gullies were likely to occur when field specific thresholds were exceeded for the following terrain attributes: the product of upslope area, slope, and plan curvatures [1]; topographic wetness index, up‐ slope area, and slope [2]; and the topographic wetness index and the product of the upslope area and slope [3]. Another study used a cartographic classification and threshold procedure

An alternative approach utilized logistic regression and artificial neural network procedures to predict where erosion channels would appear in agricultural fields based on digital ter‐ rain attributes [5]. With leave-one-field-out validation, it was determined that the more sim‐ ple logistic regression was more appropriate because it performed as well as the non-linear neural network procedure. In a follow up study, erosion channels predicted from terrain at‐ tributes derived from 10-m US Geological Survey (USGS) digital elevation models (DEMs) were compared to those derived from DEMs created with survey-grade real-time kinematic (RTK) Global Positioning System (GPS) data [6]. The USGS models identified most eroded features but the RTK analyses delineated them more clearly. The authors concluded that the USGS predictions were adequate for many agricultural applications because creating DEMs with RTK was relatively costly while USGS data was freely available on the Internet for most of the United States. A graphical representation illustrates how the logistic regression

> © 2012 Pike et al.; licensee InTech. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use,

© 2012 Pike et al.; licensee InTech. This is a paper distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

analysis [5,6] can be fit (step 1) and then applied (step 2) in Figure 1.

A great advantage of the model lies in the general formulation of its components – partial models of conservation measures at individual sites of the experimental locality, water‐ course and reservoir. This should enable its problem-free application for optimization de‐ sign of integrated territory protection under any conditions and at any site
