Photonirvachak J. Indian Soc. Remote Sens. (March 2010) 38: – Terrain Characterization Using SRTM Data Priyank Pravin Patel . Ashis Sarkar Received: / Accepted: Keywords Priyank Pravin Patel 1 () . Ashis Sarkar 2 1 Research Scholar, Department of Geography, Presidency College, Kolkata. 2 Professor and Head, Department of Geography, Presidency College, Kolkata. e-mail: priyank999@hotmail.com RESEARCH ARTICLE Abstract Earth’s surface possesses relief because the geomorphic processes operate at different rates and geologic structure plays a dominant role in the evolution of landforms (Thornbury, 1954). The spatial pattern of relief yields the topographic mosaic of a terrain and is normally extracted from the topographical maps which are available at various scales. As cartographic abstractions are scale – dependent, topographical maps are rarely good inputs for terrain analysis. Currently, the shuttle radar topography mission (SRTM) provides one of the most complete, highest resolution digital elevation model (DEM) of the Earth. It is an ideal data-set for precise terrain analysis and topographic characterization in terms of the nature of altimetric distribution, relief aspects, patterns of lineaments and surface slope, topographic profiles and their visualisation, correlation between geology and topography, hypsometric attributes and finally, the hierarchy of terrain sub-units. The present paper extracts the above geomorphic features and terrain character of part of the Chotonagpur plateau and the Dulung River basin therein using SRTM data. Introduction S.O.I. Topographical maps, at a variety of map-scales are the most readily available data source for terrain analysis. But, the scale-induced cartographic