A geomorphological slope unit dataset for the eastern edge of Tibetan Plateau

Abstract. Geomorphological slope units represent the polygonal units on the digital terrain that are jointly segmented by valley and ridgelines. In contrast to the grid cells commonly used in traditional spatial analyses, slope units have an explicit geomorphological and environmental implication and capture the topographic characteristics of different units comparatively faithfully, which is being increasingly extensively used in the investigation of natural hazards, ecological processes and environmental impacts. However, delineating slope units on a widespread regional scale remains challenging, especially in areas such as the eastern edge of Tibetan Plateau, which is characterized by considerable spatial heterogeneity of topography and fragile ecological environments. To enable more researchers to focus more conveniently on the subject matter to be addressed itself, rather than being caught up in the slope unit delineation. The present study delineates and produces a dataset of high-precision geomorphological slope units for the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau based on the publicly available high-resolution DEM data. A total of 446,497 slope units were derived, representing an area of 350,000 square kilometres. To facilitate the application of this geomorphological slope unit dataset by researchers, we use it for landslide susceptibility assessment and perform an insightful evaluation and comparison with the results of the traditional mapping units. The dataset of this geomorphological slope unit demonstrates good performance in terms of overall scale, sample scale and unit scale. It is available in Figshare at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.24457144.v1 (Zheng et al.,2023) and could be used as fundamental data for the investigation of disasters, environment and ecology in the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.