Global Mountains
Description
The Global Mountains resource is a 250m global raster data layer which identifies four classes of mountains: High Mountains, Low Mountains, Scattered High Mountains, and Scattered Low Mountains. The mountains data were extracted as a subset of the global Hammond Landforms data layer which was developed using a 250 m global digital elevation model (DEM) and feature-based extraction algorithms using raster processing and variable neighborhood analysis window (NAW) sizes. Of the 16 Hammond Landforms that were mapped, four were mountain classes. E. H. Hammond was a pioneer of landform mapping and identified three parameters for distinguishing different types of plains, hills, mountains, and tablelands: 1) slope, 2) relative relief, and 3) profile, where the profile parameter assesses the amount of relatively flat terrain in upland locations to delineate tablelands. The global mountains layer produced from the Hammond landforms analysis is called the K3 mountains layer, and joins two other widely recognized global mountain extent data layers which are called K1 and K2. The use of the K1, K2, and K3 labels stems from the fact that the last name of the primary developer of these resources happens to begin with the letter K (i.e. Kapos, for K1; Koerner, for K2; and Karagulle, for K3). In addition to the data, the Global Mountains GEO Knowledge Hub also contains other knowledge products (publications, online explorer tools, etc.) related to the Global Mountains resource.