HypsometryTools

ThetoolsintheHypsometryToolbox: HypsometricCurve:deriveshypsometry(area/elevation)forawatershedelevationraster. AreaGradienttools:derivesatableofwatershedarea,streamgradient,andhypsometry. MaxWatershed:derivesthelargestwatershed,forinputtoothertools. Purpose:

HypsometricIntegralsrelatedtowatershedshape.From ChorleyandMorley(1959).

The hypsometric curve (areaaltitude relation) of a watershedhasbeenusedsincethe1950stodescribe

thedistributionofwatershedareawithelevation,usuallyasaproportionofareaaboveeach proportioninelevation.Arelatedanalysisisbetweenwatershedareaandstreamgradient.These toolscreatemultipleindicesthatcanbeusedintheanalysisofhypsometry,gradientandwatershed area. Author: JerryDavis,Director,InstituteforGIScience,SFSU

INSTITUTEFORGEOGRAPHICINFORMATIONSCIENCE SanFranciscoStateUniversity
1600HollowayAvenue,SanFrancisco,CA94132 Tel:415/3383566Fax:415/3386243 http://gis.sfsu.edu

HypsometricCurve
Computeshypsometricdataforcurvesandintegral.
The hypsometric curve (areaaltitude relation) of a watershed was first introduced in 1947 by Langbein, and was further developed by Strahler (1952) to employ proportional heights and areas so as to make each curve comparable and independent of units. Strahler also proposed that the dimensionless hypsometric integral might be used as a measure of landscape evolution. More recently hypsometric analysis has been used in the context of tectonic geomorphic analyses of uplift history.

Outputrasterhasproportionalareaandelevationforgraphinghypsometriccurve. Parameters: Inputrasterelevationmodel.Elevationsmustbeinsameunitsashorizontalmapunits. Outputhypsometryraster.Slicedinto100equalintervalproportionsofelevation,codedas PropElev(0to1)andPropArea(0to1). HypsometricIntegral.

Chorley,R.J..andL.S.D.Morley(1959).ASimplifiedApproximationfortheHypsometricIntegral.J.Geology67, No.5,pp.566571 Langbein, W. B. (1947) Topographic characteristics of drainage basins. United States Geological Survey, Water SupplyPaper968C,125157. Strahler, A. N. (1952) Hypsometric (areaaltitude) analysis of erosional topography. Geological Society of America Bulletin63,11171142.

INSTITUTEFORGEOGRAPHICINFORMATIONSCIENCE SanFranciscoStateUniversity
1600HollowayAvenue,SanFrancisco,CA94132 Tel:415/3383566Fax:415/3386243 http://gis.sfsu.edu

AreaGradientTools
Thepurposeofthesethreetoolsistoderivehypsometricandgradient valuesforasequenceofpointsalongthemaindrainagepathofa watershed.Thetoolsdifferinhowtheydefinethemaindrainage: AreaGradientHighestOrderusesthehighestorderchannel. AreaGradientfindsachannelpaththatflowsfromthehighest elevation(MAXELEV),themaximumflowlengthpoint (MAXFLOWLENGTH),orachosenpoint(SNAPPOURPOINT). MAXFLOWLENGTH

EachcreatesaCSVfilethatcanbeopenedinExcelorjoinedtothe strElevArea.shpfileinArcMapusingid.Otherfields: wshed_area:areainsquaremapunits(e.g.m2)ofthe watersheddetectedabovethatpoint. prop_area:proportionofthetotalwatershedthisrepresents. str_gradient:streamgradient(m/m)betweeneachpointand thepointnextupstream. avg_gradient:runningaverageof3streamgradients. avgdist:thedistanceoverwhichavg_gradientwasmeasured. dist:distanceupstreamtothenextpoint. cumul_dist:cumulativedistance. x,y,z:coordinates h=(zminElev)/rangeElev

MAXELEV

Note:Thistoolcreatesatempfolderintheinputelevationrasters workspace.Thistempfolderisautomaticallydeletedatthestart,then recreatedwithnewdata.

INSTITUTEFORGEOGRAPHICINFORMATIONSCIENCE SanFranciscoStateUniversity
1600HollowayAvenue,SanFrancisco,CA94132 Tel:415/3383566Fax:415/3386243 http://gis.sfsu.edu