An overview of the Surface toolset

With the Surface tools, you can quantify and visualize a terrain landform represented by a digital elevation model.

Starting with a raster elevation surface as input, with these tools, you can gain information by producing a new dataset that identifies a specific pattern within an original dataset. You can derive patterns that were not readily apparent in the original surface, such as contours, angle of slope, steepest downslope direction, shaded relief, and visibility.

Each surface tool provides insight into a surface that can be used as an end in itself or as input to additional analysis.

The following table lists the available tools and provides a brief description of each.

ToolDescription

Add Surface Information

Attributes features with spatial information derived from a surface.

Aspect

Derives the aspect from each cell of a raster surface.

Contour

Creates a feature class of contours from a raster surface.

Contour List

Creates a feature class of selected contour values from a raster surface.

Contour with Barriers

Creates contours from a raster surface. The inclusion of barrier features allows you to independently generate contours on either side of a barrier.

Curvature

Calculates the curvature of a raster surface, optionally including profile and plan curvature.

Cut Fill

Calculates the volume change between two surfaces. This is typically used for cut and fill operations.

Geodesic Viewshed

Determines the raster surface locations visible to a set of observer features using geodesic methods.

Geomorphon Landforms

Calculates the geomorphon pattern of each cell of an input surface raster and classifies calculated geomorphons into common landform types.

Hillshade

Creates a shaded relief from a surface raster by considering the illumination source angle and shadows.

Interpolate Shape

Creates 3D features by interpolating z-values from a surface.

Observer Points

Identifies which observer points are visible from each raster surface location.

Slope

Identifies the slope (gradient or steepness) from each cell of a raster.

Surface Parameters

Determines parameters of a raster surface such as aspect, slope, and curvatures.

Viewshed

Determines the raster surface locations visible to a set of observer features.

Visibility

Determines the raster surface locations visible to a set of observer features, or identifies which observer points are visible from each raster surface location.

Tools of the Surface toolset

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