A least-cost path approach to stream delineation using lakes as patches and a digital elevation model as the cost surface

We present two approaches to predict movement of surface waters through heterogeneous terrain: least-cost graphs and circuits. These methods were compared with the commonly applied ‘deterministic eight’ (D8) approach by examining distances from extracted drainage networks to known-flow boundaries. Overlap statistics and classification accuracy estimates indicated that least-cost graphs and the circuit-based approaches hold some promise and avoid many of the pitfalls associated with removing depressions from a DEM. The majority of stream segments were correctly identified by all methods, but errors of omission and commission were fairly high.