Physical geomorphometry is a specialized subfield of geomorphometry that investigates the land surface using the fundamental principles, practices, and concepts of physics such as dimension, energy, work, force, thermodynamics, and equilibria. Unlike descriptive geomorphometry, which focuses on descriptive statistics, physical geomorphometry emphasizes the physical interpretation of land surface features.
By analyzing land surface features through the lens of geomorphometric energies, it provides deeper insights into the relationships between established geomorphometric variables, indexes, and equations. This approach enables the creation of new indexes that express land surface equilibrium and disequilibrium.
For further details, please refer to the article Physical geomorphometry for elementary land surface segmentation and digital geomorphological mapping by Minár et al. (2024).
The project, financially supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (reference number APVV-22-0024), led by prof. Jozef Minár, and runs from June 2023 to June 2027.
This project focuses on studying the geometric properties of landforms and their relationship to the influence of gravitational energy on surface processes (dynamics) and the long-term evolution (genesis) of land surface. One of the fundamental goals is to develop software packages that implement physically based methods for geomorphometric analysis.
The project aims to develop geoinformatic tools and models for analyzing interconnected physical-geomorphometric characteristics and indices. All developed tools and data will be publicly available in the project repository.
The project delivers a series of independently usable components that collectively form a comprehensive approach to land surface segmentation. These components include:
Each major topic is addressed through a dedicated software package available in the following subdirectories of the project repository:
Each package includes detailed installation and usage instructions.