Articles | Volume 9, issue 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-4451-2016
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-4451-2016
Development and technical paper
 | 
15 Dec 2016
Development and technical paper |  | 15 Dec 2016

A computationally efficient depression-filling algorithm for digital elevation models, applied to proglacial lake drainage

Constantijn J. Berends and Roderik S. W. van de Wal

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Short summary
This paper describes several improvements to the so-called "flood-fill algorithm" – a computer program widely known for its use in the "paint bucket" tool in several drawing programs such as MS Paint. However, it can also be used to determine the extent and depth of lakes in a topography map, which is useful in hydrology and climatology. In such cases, the default algorithm can be too slow to be of much use. Our improvements can make it up to 100 times faster, making it much more feasible.
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