spatialEco (version 0.1-7)

curvature: Surface curvature

Description

Calculates McNab's or Bolstad's curvature

Usage

curvature(x, s = 3, type = "mcnab")

Arguments

x

rasterLayer object

s

Focal window size

type

Method used (mcnab or bolstad)

Value

raster class object of surface curvature

References

Bolstad, P.V., and T.M. Lillesand (1992). Improved classification of forest vegetation in northern Wisconsin through a rule-based combination of soils, terrain, and Landsat TM data. Forest Science. 38(1):5-20. McNab, H.W. (1989). Terrain shape index: quantifying effect of minor landforms on tree height. Forest Science. 35(1):91-104. McNab, H.W. (1993). A topographic index to quantify the effect of mesoscale landform on site productivity. Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 23:1100-1107.

Examples

  library(raster)
  data(elev)

  m.crv <- curvature(elev, s=5, type="mcnab")
  b.crv <- curvature(elev, s=5, type="bolstad")
    par(mfrow=c(1,2))
      plot(m.crv, main="McNab curvature") 
      plot(b.crv, main="Bolstad curvature")