An Improved Topographic Wetness Index
Considering Topographic Position
Jianchao Ma, Guangfa Lin*, Junming Chen, Liping Yang
College of Geographical Sciences, Fujian Normal University
Fujian Provincial Engineering Research Center for Monitoring and Assessing Terrestrial Disasters
Fuzhou 350007 P. R. China
*Corresponding author: guangfalin@263.net
Abstract—The Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) is frequently
used to simulate the soil moisture conditions in a watershed
quantitatively, and it is the most commonly used indicator for
static soil moisture content as well. So it plays an important role
in the research of soil erosion and distributed hydrological model
in watersheds, etc. Additionally, the index was generally
extracted from Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and the formula
is: w = ln (As/ tanβ), where As means the specific catchment area
(catchment area divided by the cell width in slope direction); β
means the local slope in the steepest down slope direction of the
terrain in degrees. Then tanβ is the local slope angle of the
specific grid, which is used to replace approximately the local
hydraulic gradient under steady state conditions. However, TWI
only has the physical significance based on the runoff flowing by
gravity, doesen't consider other factors. For example, as for some
cells with the same catchment area and slope, the soil moisture
content varies in different aspects and terrain positions. This
result was directly caused by the differences in temperature, heat
and the soil physical and chemical properties which were induced
by the solar radiation variance. We classified the aspect into
shady slope, sunny slope, and semi-shady and half-sunny slope.
And the terrain position was graded by a function of Relative
Position Index (RPI). According to the rules: the soil moisture
content of (1) shady slope being greater than that of sunny slope,
(2) the terrain position increasing from top to bottom, we
assigned a weight to the topographic position (i.e. aspect and
terrain position) corresponding. Then we revised the simple TWI
by the topographic position, and acquired the improved one
capable of representing the soil moisture content more accurate.
In the work, the DEM with the resolution of 40 m in our
experimental area Xiamen City, Fujian Province, P. R. China,
was derived from 1:10000 map scale Digital Line Graphic (DLG),
and TWI was computed with the improved method introduced
above. The result shows that considering topographic position in
the simple TWI can make it more clear on physical significance;
and the improved TWIs can also provide a scientific basis for
predicting the spatial distribution of the soil moisture content,
simulating the runoff and evaluating the dispersion of the point
pollution sources.
Keywords-topographic wetness index; DEM; aspect; terrain
position; improved
I. INTRODUCTION
Different topographies fromed different runoff fields.
Given a full consideration of the topographic influence on the
Supported by Research Fund from National Natural Science Foundation of
China (40401049)；Innovation Project of Department of Science and
Technology, Fujian Province (2009Y2002)；Key Project of Department of
Education of Fujian Province (03WB710).
formation and changes of the watershed runoff, Beven
proposed Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) [1], which takes
into account both a local slope geometry and site location in
the landscape combining data on slope steepness and specific
catchment area:
w = ln (As/ tanβ) (1)
In terms of Digital Elevation Model (DEM), As is the
cumulative upslope area draining through per contour length to
a pixel, tanβ is the local slope angle of the cell. The index
describes two sides of the slope hydrological processes. First,
As reflects the trend of water to accumulate at any point in the
catchment; The other, tanβ indicates the tendency for
gravitational forces to move that water downslide by gravity.
A direct proportional relation between the relative soil
moisture content and TWI has been validated in previous
studies [1, 2]. Xiong points out TWI is mainly used to
characterize the long-time soil moisture status at each point, or
the proportion of river runoff area of total drainage basins [3].
Therefore, TWI can be used to describe the spatial distribution
of the soil moisture content and related landscape processes. As
specific catchment area increases and slope steepness decreases,
TWI and soil moisture content increase. This can lead to higher
correlations of soil moisture with TWI than with specific
catchment area and slope steepness[4].
With GIS and DEM, topographic index can be derived
from elevation information of the watershed easily. Many
researchers have worked on using TWI to simulate the soil
moisture status more accurately. In these investigations, they
improved the index by integrating with topographic parameters
or using a new algorithm. On one hand, they integrated with
other topographic parameters (such as curvature, aspect, etc.) to
improve the index’s prediction ability [5, 6]. On the other hand,
they focused on improving the flow direction algorithm and
discussing a more rational local terrain slope to estimate the
local hydrological gradient [7, 8, 9, 10, 11].
In my research, we considered that the aspect and terrain
positions took important roles in the simulation of soil moisture
content. For example, the soil moisture status was varied in
different aspects because the soil moisture evaporation capacity
was different in these aspects. Generally speaking, soil on the
shady slope have a better structure, permeability and water
retention capacity to which on the sunny slope [12]. Therefore,
under the same rainfall situation, the soil moisture content that
located on the shady slope is higher than which on the sunny
slope. In the same way, the soil moisture content at different
terrain positions is variant, that increasing from the ridge to the
valley, due to the redistribution of soil water along the slope
[13, 14]. Thus, considering topographic position (i.e. aspect
and terrain position) in simple TWI can enhance its prediction
ability of the soil moisture conditions.
In this research, Multiple Flow Direction algorithm was
employed to calculate the simple TWI. Then, we improved the
simple TWI considered the Topographic Position. The
improved TWI is preferable to the traditional one for predicting
soil moisture conditions.
II. RESEARCH AREA
Xiamen City is in the southern coast of Fujian Province,
P.R. China (Fig. 1), whose coordinates is 24°26′46″ of north
latitude, and 118°04′04″ of east longitude [15].The highest
elevation is 963 m. The terrain types from north-west to south-
east of the mainland is sloping from low mountain to hill and
plain. The study region Xiyuanxi is a small (about 38 km2)
watershed located upstream of Xixi basin, which is the largest
basin in Xiamen. Most area of Xiyuanxi watershed is steep
terrain (Fig. 1). The DEM with the resolution of 40 m in the
study area was generated by the Digital Line Graphic (DLG)
on the scale of 1:10000, and the drainage network was
extracted with the threshold of 7.2 km2.
QUAN
ZHANG
ZHOU
XIA MEN
ZHOU
Figure 1. Position of Xiyuanxi watershed and its shaded relief map of 40 m
resolution DEM (SPOT 5 image; band combination (R, G, B): 4, 1, 3)
III. MATERIALS AND METHODS
A. TWI DERIVATION
An accurate simple TWI is the foundation of simulating the
soil moisture content distribution. Wolock points out that the
Single Flow Direction algorithm is not suitable to generate
flow direction from DEM, because there are lots of parallel
flow and single pixel wide river in the result [16]. And the
Multiple Flow Direction (MFD) algorithm is more accurate to
express the relationship of upslope contribution area and reflect
the hydrological similarity of real catchments [9]. Thus, this
research used the classical MFD algorithm to calculate the
simple TWI [17].
B. ASPECT WEIGHT
The soil moisture content of the shady slope is higher than
the sunny slope, and the semi-shady and half-sunny slope is
between the two [18,19,20,21]. Thus we classified the aspect
into shady slope, sunny slope, and the rest slopes (which were
called semi-shady and half-sunny slope). In this classification,
0°-67.5° and 292.5°-360° is the shady slope, 112.5°-247.5° is
the sunny slope, and the remaining slopes are the semi-shady
and half-sunny slope. We assigned the weight 1.1, 0.9, 1 and 1
to the shady slope, the sunny slope, and semi-shady and half-
sunny slope respectively.
C. TERRAIN POSITION WEIGHT
According to the previous studies, the soil moisture content
on the valley is higher than that of the ridge [14,22]. The
Relative Position Index (RPI) which was put forward by
Skidmore [23], gives an approximate estimation of how far a
location is from a ridge or a valley. Its value ranges from 0 to 1,
where 0 for the valley and 1 for the ridge. Thus, we defined
0.1+[4/ (RPI+4)] as the terrain position weight, whose range
changes between 0.9 (for the ridge) and 1.1 (for the valley).
The weight of terrain position is consistent with the weight of
aspect.
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
A. COMBINATION OF SIMPLE TWI AND ASPECT
The visual impression is confirmed by comparing the
frequency curves (Fig. 2) and the various statistical measures
(Tab.Ⅰ). Value spatial distribution of the simple TWI changes
after it integrated with aspect. The frequency curve (Fig. 2)
shows the simple TWI value less than 5 and grater than 10
increases, while the value between 5 and 10 reduces. This may
due to the simple TWI, whose value between 5 to 10 in the
region is partly on the sunny slope and partly on the shady
slope. The simple TWI in this position is given a weight that
less than 1 and more than 1, thus its value changed smaller or
bigger than the front.
B. COMBINATION OF SIMPLE TWI AND TERRAIN POSITION
Figure 2 clearly shows that not only the frequency curve of
the simple TWI integrated with slope position is similar to the
index integrated with aspect, but also the tendency of the
frequency curve that moving to the low value is increases. This
means the simple TWI value on the ridge or uphill which
reduced according to the revision of terrain position.
TableⅠ shows that the minimum value of the simple TWI
integrated with terrain position is equal to the index integrated
with aspect. What’s more, their weights are both 0.9, which
indicates that those minimum values of TWI are located on the
ridge and the sunny slope. This phenomenon coincides with the
reality.
C. COMBINATION OF SIMPLE TWI AND ASPECT AND TERRAIN
POSITION
The amplitude of the frequency curve moving to the low
value increases (Fig. 2), after the simple TWI integrated with
aspect and terrain position. This may arise from the position of
those values are located on sunny slope or uphill, which are B
both impacted by aspect and terrain position, and so was given
a small weight.
The maximum value of the simple TWI integrated with A
aspect and terrain position is the greatest among the four TWIs.
Meanwhile the minimum value of it is the smallest among the m
four (Tab.Ⅰ). This result indicates that the position of the
maximum value is the shady slope and the valley, and the
position of the minimum value is the sunny slope and the ridge.
The result corresponds with the fact. A B

TABLE I. DESCRIPTIVE STATISTIC OF TWI FOR THE STUDIED BASIN Figure 3. Position of the typical region and transect line (the shaded relief
map of the typical area and the elevation profile are on the right of the picture)
TWI Min Max Mean Std.
Simple_TWI 4.56 21.16 7.31 2.44
Aspect_TWI 4.11 22.58 7.16 2.44
Terrain Position_TWI 4.11 22.71 7.18 2.82
Aspect_Terrain_TWI 3.40 24.84 7.04 2.81

1
Simple_TWI
0.8
Aspect_TWI
Frequency

0.6 Terrain Position_TWI

Aspect_Terrain_TWI
0.4 Ⅰ Ⅱ Ⅲ

0.2 Figure 4. Different Values distribution in the typical region

0
0 5 10 15 20 25
TWIs

Figure 2. Histogram of TWI for the studied basin

D. THE IMPROVED TWIS’ COMPARETION

In order to compare the improved TWIs at different
topographic positions, we chose one typical region and a
profile in Xiyuanxi watershed (Fig. 3). There is a relatively
complete hill in the typical region, and different types of the
topographies on the transect line from A to B.
We took Difference Analyses between the improved TWIs
and simple TWI in the typical region (Fig. 4). Different Values
(D-values) distribution map (Fig. 4,Ⅰ) between the simple Figure 5. Boxplot statistic of the typical region
TWI and the index integrated with aspect, shows that the
The boxplot of these TWIs in the typical region shows the
simple TWI value on the shady slope increases; the sunny
improved TWIs have less outliers, especially the index
slope decreases; and the semi-shady and half-sunny slope has
integrated with aspect and terrain position (Fig. 5).
no change. The results are the case as well of the D-values
distribution maps (Fig. 4, Ⅱ) between the simple TWI and the Different types of topographic positions on the transect
index integrated with terrain position, and between the simple line from A to B (Fig. 3), such as valley, downhill, ridge, and
TWI and the index integrated with aspect and terrain position sunny slope, shady slope. The weight profile of aspect and
(Fig. 4, Ⅲ). In all, the TWI value changes with the revision by terrain position (Fig. 6) shows the high weight is on the shady
aspect and terrain position. slope and valley, the low weight is on the sunny slope and
ridge. Then, the TWI value changes after it integrated with the
topographic position weight at the corresponding positions
(Fig. 7).
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1
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7 [12]
5
3 ridge downhill ridge valley
valley
A sunny slope shady slope shady slope
Position of Transect Line A to B
Figure 7. TWIs profile across transect line A-B (for the location see Fig. 3)
V. CONCLUSIONS
This paper improved the simple TWI according to the
influence of aspect and terrain position to the soil moisture
conditions. The result indicates that the improved TWI, which
integrated with aspect or terrain position or both of the two, is
closer to the real than the simple TWI. On the basis of this
paper, the following conclusions were reached: (1) The value
of the improved TWI on the sunny slope and the ridge
decreases, comparing with the simple TWI; (2) The value of
the improved TWI on the shady slope and the valley increases,
comparing with the simple TWI.
Further research is to explore the weight of the
topographic position more scientific according to its influence
of soil moisture content. And a further test will be taken to
verify the improved TWIs by the field survey data of the
vegetation, soil and other elements in the experimental region.
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