DETERMINING SUBGLACIAL HYDROLOGICAL CONDITIONS OF THE GLACIATED ALLEGHENY PLATEAU FROM DEMS AND SATELLITE IMAGERY

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and satellite imagery provide detailed information about the surface of the landscape on which we now live. This study demonstrates how these digital data can be used to examine the glaciated Allegheny Plateau in NE Ohio and NW Pennsylvania. The detail of this landscape has not been revealed until now with the creation of detailed DEMs of the region. From the DEMs, it can be determined that the landscape developed in a number of stages: 1.Preglacial river networks were overridden and modified by glacial ice; 2.Large and medium scale streamlining formed upland remnants which are fluted and drumlinized; 3.Re-channelization partly re-occupied the preglacial network and in places formed new channels; and 4.Deglaciation formed a number of moraines and outwash plains that now cover the subglacial landscape. As well as large-scale overviews, the DEMs show exceptional detail of shape, slope and pattern in this landscape that is now masked by a myriad of cultural imprints. This paper demonstrates how information extracted from the DEMs and satellite imagery can aid in determining glacial hydrological processes that operated on the landscape in the past. Since the DEMs contain information that is too subtle to be observed instantly on satellite imagery, aerial photographs, or topographic maps, classification techniques, specifically object-oriented classification, aids immensely in the extraction of detail from these files. This paper presents the preliminary results of this classification and discusses how the classification can help determine hydrological conditions.