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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Status: closed
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AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment
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Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision
AR by Tijn Berends on behalf of the Authors (25 Oct 2016)
ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (26 Oct 2016) by Didier Roche
RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (04 Nov 2016)
ED: Reconsider after major revisions (04 Nov 2016) by Didier Roche
AR by Tijn Berends on behalf of the Authors (22 Nov 2016)  Author's response   Manuscript 
ED: Publish as is (23 Nov 2016) by Didier Roche
AR by Tijn Berends on behalf of the Authors (30 Nov 2016)
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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.