The objective of this work was to compare methodologies for the automatic generation of limits and drainage networks, using a geographical information system for basins of low relief variation, such as the Dourados catchment area. Various data/processes were assessed, especially the ArcHydro and AVSWAT interfaces used to process 50 m resolution DTMs formed from the interpolation of digitalized contour lines using ArcInfo, ArcView and Spring GIS, and a 90 m resolution SRTM DTM acquired by interferometry radar. Their accuracy was estimated based upon the pre-processing of small basic sub-basin units of different relief variations, before applying the best combinations to the entire Dourados basin. The accuracy of the automatic stream network generation and watershed delineation depends essentially on the quality of the raw digital terrain model. The selection of the most suitable one then depends completely on the aims of the user and on the work scale.
watershed; catchment; geographic information systems
