Two important raster geoprocessing functions for extracting surface flow topography are: i) the local drain
direction, and ii) flux accumulation (Burrough and McDonnell, 1998). These functions are a common
precursor for delineating drainage networks in GIS, but there is a distinction in the precision with which
algorithms compute flow. The simplest algorithm computes flow for 8 cardinal directions (D8) and more
precise algorithms compute continuous flow directions (D∞). TauDEM supports either method, but the later
gives superior results. The local drainage direction is extremely useful for calculating flow properties and
drainage connectivity. This is derived for each cell by examining the drainage directions of neighbouring
cells and counting those that drain to it. For D8 this is trivial as there is a one-to-one relation between a
supply cell and a receiving cell, i.e. it flows to a neighbour along one of the 8 directions. For the D∞ there is
a one-to-many relation between a supply cell and receiving cells, and the flow needs to be proportioned to the
appropriate receiving cells (Tarboton, 1997).