Hydrosedimentological Connectivity in an Agricultural Mountain Basin: A Multi-Resolution DEM Analysis

Hydrosedimentological connectivity governs how water and sediment move through mountainous tropical landscapes, where steep slopes, intense rainfall, and diverse land-use practices make sediment transfer highly sensitive to small-scale natural and anthropogenic features. This study examines how different Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) represent terrain controls on sediment connectivity in the Bonfim basin, Petrópolis (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Field surveys and high-resolution topographic data were used to identify connectivity-modifying features, while all DEMs were preprocessed to compute the Index of Connectivity (IC) to evaluate how resolution affects the detection of microtopography and the modeling of potential sediment pathways at multiple scales. This framework provides the basis for comparing the ability of each DEM to capture fine-scale sediment dynamics within an agricultural mountainous environment, as to delineate implications for soil erosion management and watershed planning.