The Swift Current hillslopes, Saskatchewan: Digital elevation data

The Swift Current hillslopes at the Swift Current Research and Development Centre on the Canadian Prairies are a long-term hydrological research site. Over the last 50 years, the site has supported research on the effects of climate change and land management change on snowmelt-runoff, soil erosion and nutrient transport from agricultural hillslopes. High-resolution digital elevation data are essential for spatially-distributed understanding of these runoff delivery and transport processes. The three hillslopes are rectangular in shape, each approximately 150 m wide (east-west) and 300-320 m long (north-south), with areas of 4.25 ha (Hillslope 1), 4.66 ha (Hillslope 2), and 4.86 ha (Hillslope 3). This dataset provides two sets of bare-ground digital elevation data for the Swift Current hillslopes. The first set contains digital elevation data collected at a 2 m horizontal resolution for each of the three hillslopes using a Leica Viva GS15 on 17-18 April 2012. The second set contains two digital elevation models at a 0.25 m horizontal resolution for Hillslope 2 obtained using an Optech ILRIS-LR Terrestrial Laser Scanner on 7 July 2014 and 24 September 2014. These finer-resolution 2014 surveys capture the surface micro-topography of Hillslope 2 under a tilled condition with non-directional variations in surface roughness (random toughness) as well as under a seeded condition with uni-directional ridge-and-furrow features (oriented roughness). These digital elevation data provide the scientific and engineering communities with an opportunity to advance our understanding of spatial hydrological processes and the importance of micro-topographic features. **Please note: This dataset is linked to an ESSD paper at https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-11-1375-2019.  The authors kindly request that you reference this paper in addition to the dataset.