I want to generate an environmental layer depicting topographic roughness, or complexity, scores using a DEM in ArcMap.
I know there are lots of available methods (i.e. http://gis4geomorphology.com/roughness-topographic-position/ ).
But I want to ask peoples recommendations.
Thanks!
Hello,
the tipographic map and DEM can provide us the trrain and mesh of the ground, my be the soil type and rocks effect in the sargace rouphness
When you decide to measure surface roughness at first you need to see what kind of DEM do you have and also to have in consideration the altitude error and cell size. P.e. ASTER DEM has good resolution but in areas where are uniform from the spectral perspective like in salt lakes, ASTER DEM is very noisy. The pixel size of STRM is broader than ASTER and sometimes you have noise produced by postprocessing procedures. In both cases, if the area is covered by a forest you have the top of the forest not the altitude at the level of the soil. Anyway roughness can be well calculated if you take in account also variables like type of DEM, resolution, environmental conditions and so on. In Fact people can calculate roughness by using common algorithms like he TRI.
See for more information at: https://download.osgeo.org/qgis/doc/reference-docs/Terrain_Ruggedness_Index.pdf
Cheers
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