Terrain Mapping and Analysis

By:
Asnake Kassahun
 General
• The terrain with its
undulating, continuous
land surface is a
familiar phenomenon
to GIS users.

• The land surface is a

three-dimensional
surface.
 General
• Most GIS packages treat elevation data,
often called the z values:
– as attribute data at point or cell locations
rather than as an additional coordinate to the
X-, Y coordinates.
 General
• In raster format, the z values correspond
to cell values.
• In vector format, the z values are stored in
a field of a feature attribute table.
– ➔Terrain mapping and analysis can use
either raster data or vector data as the input.
 General
1. If the environmental protection authority would like to know the landslide
susceptibility of an area, how would you advise them as GIS expert? What
kind of data is important for this analysis? What kind of analytical tool will you
use to respond his request?
2. A city council would like to have a green belt around the city, which has
undulating topography to minimize the risk of flood, pollution and other
natural hazard. For the esthetic value of the green belt, the council would like
incorporate to the proposed green belt ornamental tree species. However, for
the successful establishment of these ornamental trees, the proposed
species are very light demanding and morning sunlight is very important. If
the council requests you, what do you advice him? What data sets are
required? What kind of analysis is required?
3. The Ethiopian Telecommunication company would like to locate antennas for
wireless communication in major cities of the central highlands of Ethiopia.
How would you advice the company? What kind of datasets are required?
Write the type of analysis?
4. The Ethiopian Military Force send to a place for military operation. The place
has rugged topography. How GIS can help them for effective operation?
Which data is relevant and kind of analysis?
 4.1 Acquisition of Digital Terrain
Data
• is obtained through different sources:
– through stereoscopic measurements from aerial
photographs using digital stereo-plotters
– stereo image correlation using aerial
photographs or digital images,
– land surveying measurements and
– maps with spot heights and / or contours.
– Directly using powerful techniques include radar
interferometry (RADARSAT–1, Shuttle Radar
Topography Mission) and airborne laser altimetry
 4.2 Data for Terrain Mapping
4.2.1 DEM(digital elevation model)

• is digital representation
of topographic surface
with the elevation or
ground height

• The quality of a DEM can influence the

accuracy of terrain measures
 4.2 Data for Terrain Mapping
• For terrain analysis, point
based DEMs must first
be converted to software-
specific raster data such
as elevation grids

• Elevation points in a
DEM thus become cells
in an elevation grid.
 4.2 Data for Terrain Mapping
4.2.2 TIN (Triangulated Irregular Network)
• approximates the land surface
with a series of non-overlapping
triangles.
• Elevation values (z values) along
with x, y-coordinates are stored
at nodes that make up the
triangles.
• In contrast to DEMs, TINs are
based on an irregular distribution
of elevation points.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
4.3.1 Contouring
• is the most common method
for terrain mapping.
• Contour lines connect
points of equal elevation,
and the contour interval
represents the vertical
distance between contour
lines.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
• The arrangement and pattern of
contour lines reflect the
topography. For example,
– contour lines are closely spaced in
steep terrain and are curved in the
upstream direction along a stream.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
• Automated contouring follows
two basic steps:
– a contour line intersecting a grid
cell or a triangle, and
– drawing the contour line through
the grid cell or triangle
➔ A TIN is a good example for
illustrating automated contouring
because it is already triangulated
and has elevation readings for all
nodes.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
• Contour lines cannot intersect one another
or stop in the middle of a map, although
they can close up by themselves in cases
of depressions or isolated hills.
• Contour maps created from a GIS
sometimes contain irregularities or even
errors
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
4.3.2 Vertical Profiling
• shows changes in elevation along a line,
such as a road, or a stream
• There are two methods:
– manual method
– Automated profiling

ht

length
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
• Manual method involves the
following steps: ht
– draw a line on a contour map;
– mark each intersection between
a contour and the profile line and
record its elevation;
length
– raise each intersection point to a
height proportional to its
elevation; and
– plot the vertical profile by
connecting thepoints.

• Automated profiling follows the same procedure but

substitutes the contour map with an elevation grid or
a TIN.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
4.3.3 Hill shading
• Also known as shaded relief or simply shading
• attempts to simulate how the terrain looks with
the interaction between sunlight and surface
features
– A mountain slope directly facing incoming light will be
very bright, but a slope opposite to the light will be
dark.
• Hill shading helps viewers recognize the shape of land form
features on a display.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
• Four factors control the visual effect of hill
shading.
– The sun's azimuth is the direction of the incoming
light, ranging from 0° to 360° in a clockwise direction.
– The sun's altitude is the angle of the incoming light
measured above the horizon between 0° and 90°.
– The other two factors are the surface's slope and
aspect:
• slope ranges from 0° to 90° and
• aspect from 0° to 360°.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
4.3.4 Hypsometric Tinting
• Also known as layer tinting,
• applies color symbols to different elevation
zones,
– The use of well chosen color symbols can help
viewers see the progression in elevation, especially
on a small scale map.
– Hypsometric tinting can also be used to highlight a
particular elevation zone, which may be important, for
example, in a wildlife habitat study.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
4.3.5 Perspective View
• A graphic method that produces 3-D views of the
land surface.
• Four parameters can control the appearance of a
3-D view:
–Viewing azimuth
–Viewing angle
–Viewing distance
–Z-scale
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
• Viewing azimuth:
– is the direction from the observer to the surface,
ranging from 0° to 360° in a clockwise direction.
• Viewing angle:
– is the angle measured from the horizon to the altitude
of the observer.
– A viewing angle is always between 0° and 90°.
• An angle of 90° means viewing the surface from directly
above, while an angle of 0° means viewing the surface directly
ahead.
• Therefore, the 3-D effect reaches its maximum as the angle
approaches 0° and its minimum as the angle approaches 90°.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
• Viewing distance:
– is the distance between the viewer and the
surface.
– Adjustment of the viewing distance allows the
surface to be viewed close up or from a
distance.
• Z-scale:
– is the ratio between the vertical scale and the
horizontal scale.
– z-scale is useful for highlighting minor landform
features.
 4.3 Terrain Mapping
The 3-D Analyst extension to ArcView
– provides graphical interfaces for manipulating the viewing
parameters.
– to make perspective views even more realistic, they can be
superimposed with thematic layers such as land cover,
vegetation, and roads in a process called 3-D draping
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
4.4.1 Slope and Aspect
• Slope:
– Definition: measures the rate of
change of elevation at a surface
location
– Purpose of slope analysis:
• Grade
• Steepness of terrain
• Show limitations to buildings, other
development
– Calculated as:
• Degree
• Percent
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
• Aspect:
– Definition: Direction of maximum slope
– identifies the steepest down slope direction
from each cell to its neighbors
– Example: South-facing aspect
– Aspect is important for:
• Vegetation/habitat
• Site characteristics

– Measured in compass directions (degrees)

• Aspect starts with 0°at the north, moves clockwise, and ends
with 360°also at the north
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
4.4.2 Surface Curvature
• Used to determine if the surface at a cell location is
upwardly convex or concave.
• three cultivator measures can be computed:
– Profile curvature
– Plan curvature
– Curvature
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
– Profile curvature estimates along the direction of
maximum slope.
– Plan curvature estimates orthogonal to, or across, the
direction of maximum slope.
– Curvature measures the difference between the two,
that is, (profile curvature - plan curvature).
• A positive curvature value at a cell means that the surface is
upwardly convex at the cell.
• A negative curvature value means that the surface is
upwardly concave.
• And a 0 value means that the surface is flat.
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
4.4.3 Viewshed Analysis
• Definition: area visible from a specified location
or point
• Applications of viewshed analysis:
– Useful in site selection or evaluation
• For constructing churches
• For selecting locations for resort
area developments
• Site for a forest lookout station
• To locate antennas for wireless
communication.
• To gain as much visibility as possible,
observation points should be located in
areas of high elevation.
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
4.4.4 Watershed Analysis
• A watershed is an area that drains water and
other substances to a common outlet.
• A watershed is also called a basin or catchment.
• Elevation grids and raster data operations are
used in watershed analysis for derivation of
topographic features such as:
– watersheds and stream networks, which are
important in characterizing the hydrologic process
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
• Watershed analysis usually requires
three data sets in raster format:
– a filled elevation grid
• A grid that is void of depressions.
– A depression is a cell or cells that are
surrounded by higher elevation values, and thus
represents an area of internal drainage.
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
– a flow direction grid,
• shows the direction water
flow out of each cell.
• The common method for
determining flow direction:
– is to find the steepest
distance weighted gradient to
one of its eight surrounding
cells, or
– Compare lowest point out of
the eight neighbors with the
height of the central point to
determine the flow direction.
– One limitation of the method is that it does not allow
flow to be distributed to multiple cells.
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
– a flow accumulation grid
• tabulates for each cell the number of cells that will
flow to it
– Cells having high accumulation values generally
correspond to stream channels, whereas
– cells having an accumulation value of zero generally
correspond to ridge lines.
• Therefore a fully connected drainage network can
be derived from a flow accumulation grid by using
some threshold accumulation value
 4.4 Terrain Analysis
• Watersheds can be delineated for selected
points or for an entire grid
– A specific watershed can be derived for a point such
as a hydrologic station by following the ascending
flow paths from the point.
– Watersheds can be delineated for an entire grid by
using a user-defined minimum size in each watershed
and drainage line intersections as the starting points
 Applications of Digital Terrain Models

• Generally DTM can applied in

– Geomorphology
– Hydrology
– Biology
– Engineering
– Transport
– Land Use Planning & Mgt
– Military
 Remarks

• Two common data sources for terrain

mapping and analysis
• Remember the different methods for
terrain mapping
• Beware of the different terrain analysis