slopeasp: Calculate slope and aspect from elevation data.

Description

Uses gridded elevation data to calculate slope and aspect, by default using a 3x3 region. The horizontal resolution and vertical resolution must be in the same units.

Usage

slopeasp(x, EWres, NSres, EWkernel, NSkernel, smoothing=1)

Value

slope: The slope of the DEM, in degrees
aspect: The aspect of the DEM, beginning with north and moving clockwise, and with aspect = 0 where slope = 0.

Arguments

x: gridded elevation data, either as a SpatialGridDataFrame, dataframe, or matrix.
EWres: East-West grid resolution. May be omitted if x is a SpatialGridDataFrame and the horizontal units are the same as the vertical units.
NSres: North-South grid resolution. May be omitted if x is a SpatialGridDataFrame and the horizontal units are the same as the vertical units.
EWkernel: The kernel to use when calculating the East-West component of slope. If missing, a 3x3 kernel will be used.
NSkernel: The kernel to use when calculating the North-South component of slope. If missing, a 3x3 kernel will be used.
smoothing: A positive integer describing the additional smoothing to be applied, if any. smoothing=1 (default) means no smoothing will be used.

Author

Sarah Goslee

Details

By default, a 3x3 Sobel filter is used (as is standard in many GIS packages). A larger Sobel filter or a different filter will give varying results. This filter provides the third-order finite difference weighted by reciprocal of distance method proposed by Unwin (1981).

References

Unwin, D. 1981. Introductory Spatial Analysis. London: Methuen. Clarke, K.C.and Lee, S.J. 2007. Spatial resolution and algorithm choice as modifiers of downslope flow computed from Digital Elevation Models. Cartography and Geographic Information Science 34:215-230.

Examples

Run this code

	data(dem)
	dem.slopeasp <- slopeasp(dem)

	par(mfrow=c(1,3))
	image(dem)
	image(dem.slopeasp$slope)
	image(dem.slopeasp$aspect)

Run the code above in your browser using DataCamp Workspace