<p>Digital terrain analysis may be a useful tool for modeling the extent of Cs-137 soil contamination patterns after the Chernobyl disaster. The test area of the &#160;Kostica River basin (Bryansk Region, Russia)&#160; covers an area of 19,4x11,6 km and is characterized by relatively low levels of <sup>137</sup>Cs contamination after the Chernobyl accident&#160; in the range of&#160; 2.4&#160; to 33 kBq/m<sup>2</sup>. It is just 4-18 times higher than the global fallout which was equal to 1,75 kBq/m<sup>2</sup> in 1986.</p><p>The purpose of&#160; the research was to obtain estimates of the transformation of initial <sup>137</sup>Cs patterns as in&#64258;uenced by different landscape factors (DEM attributes) with a grid resolution of 100, 50 and 25 m. Different kinds of DEM&#160; curvatures calculations&#160; may be done by using SAGA, Whitebox GAT and Grass for each grid size model.</p><p>In the case under study two informational layers were made use of&#160; to evaluate processes of <sup>137</sup>Cs redistribution in the River Kostica basin. These are: 1) SRTM&#160; layer with a resolution of 90 m&#160; and&#160; 2) the data of air-gamma survey with a resolution of 100 m.&#160; The total watershed area of the Kostica River occupies 225 km<sup>2</sup>. SRTM data were resampled in a coordinates and georeference system of AG (air-gamma survey was represented in the Gauss-Kruger coordinate system) lay&#160; with a resolution of 100 m.</p><p>The results of the air gamma survey conducted in the summer of 1993, give clear evidence that the processes of <sup>137</sup>Cs lateral migration took place due to nearly a fourfold increase of <sup>137</sup>Cs in the lower slope as compared to the surface of the watershed during a seven-year period after the Chernobyl accident.</p><p>We examine the effect of grid size of the &#160;digital elevation model (DEM) on the erosion simulations. For resampled grid data with a resolution &#160;of 50 and 25 m &#160;we apply SAGA-GIS Module &#8220;Resampling&#8221; and compare the results with those of &#160;the original method of simplicity versus fitting (SvF). &#160;The method SvF is devoted to finding a compromise between simplicity of the model and precision of replication of experimental data. The integral in the range of squared second derivatives was used as a measure of simplicity, with usual standard deviation being applied as a measure for replication of experimental data.</p><p>The study is based on the concept of sediment and hydrological connectivity. We apply GIS-based models considering lateral soil migration to analyze sediment cascade systems. Soil erosion was evaluated based on an analysis of Cs-137 migration determined using the LS factor implemented by GRASS GIS.</p><p>The reported study was funded by RFBR according to the research project &#8470; 20-07-00701A&#160;</p>