Use of morphometric statistics to describe internal geometry of gently sloping and mountainous territories

Known statistical methods of terrain analysis, such as analysis of hystograms of frequency distributions of elevation, slope steepness, and aspect, may be strengthened by methods that are based on use of morphometric statistics, that is, by analysis of frequencies to meet various land form types. New morphometric statistics (frequencies of land form types and their ratios) are introduced and studied is this paper on a large data array (17 large-scale digital elevation matrices with total area greater than 45,000 km2, total number of matrix elements about 33 millons) that are based on Troeh.s [22] land form classification. It is shown that these characteristics are in general predictable, but there are relatively small deviations from predicted values that demonstate dependence on terrain relief DDZ. The relationships consist in linear dependence (in a statistical sense) of some of frequencies on logarithm of DDZ. Negative forms of Troeh.s classification dominate in mountainous territories, while positive dominate in gently sloping ones. A possible interpretation of these results is suggested as results of denudation processes accomplished by parallel tectonical processes on geological times. Possibilities are discussed to use other land form classifications, for which morphometric statistics may be either statistically predictable, or unpredictable, that is, directly describing terrain specifics.