Awesome

TopoToolbox - a set of Matlab functions for topographic analysis

TopoToolbox provides a set of Matlab functions that support the analysis of relief and flow pathways in digital elevation models. The major aim of TopoToolbox is to offer helpful analytical GIS utilities in a non-GIS environment in order to support the simultaneous application of GIS-specific and other quantitative methods.

If you have any questions or remarks, please contact the authors:

Wolfgang Schwanghart w.schwanghart[at]geo.uni-potsdam.de

Dirk Scherler scherler[at]gfz-potsdam.de

Requirements

TopoToolbox is plat-form independent and requires Matlab 2016b or higher and the Image Processing Toolbox. The Mapping Toolbox is not mandatory, but good to have to facilitate easy data exchange with GIS software. Some functions support parallelisation using the Parallel Toolbox. Few functions require the Optimization or Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox.

References

When you use TopoToolbox in your work, please reference following publication:

• Schwanghart, W., Scherler, D. (2014): TopoToolbox 2 – MATLAB-based software for topographic analysis and modeling in Earth surface sciences. Earth Surface Dynamics, 2, 1-7. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-2-1-2014

If you are using version 1, then please refer to this publication:

• Schwanghart, W., Kuhn, N.J. (2010): TopoToolbox: a set of MATLAB functions for topographic analysis. Environmental Modelling & Software, 25, 770-781. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2009.12.002

In addition, various models and algorithms used in TopoToolbox have been published in the following articles.

DEM preprocessing and carving

• Schwanghart, W., Groom, G.B., Kuhn, N.J., Heckrath, G., 2013: Flow network derivation from a high resolution DEM in a low relief, agrarian landscape. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 38, 1576-1586. DOI: 10.1002/esp.3452

• Schwanghart, W., Scherler, D., 2017. Bumps in river profiles: uncertainty assessment and smoothing using quantile regression techniques. Earth Surface Dynamics, 5, 821-839. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-5-821-2017

TopoToolbox Landscape Evolution Modelling (TTLEM) and HyLands

• Campforts, B., Schwanghart, W., Govers, G. (2017): Accurate simulation of transient landscape evolution by eliminating numerical diffusion: the TTLEM 1.0 model. Earth Surface Dynamics, 5, 47-66. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-5-47-2017

• HyLands: Campforts B., Shobe M.C., et al. (2020): HyLands 1.0: a Hybrid Landscape evolution model to simulate the impact of landslides and landslide-derived sediment on landscape evolution. Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 3863–3886. DOI: 10.5194/gmd-13-3863-2020

Excess topography

• Blöthe, J.H., Korup, O., Schwanghart, W., 2015: Large landslides lie low: Excess topography in the Himalaya-Karakorum ranges. Geology, 43, 523-526. DOI: 10.1130/G36527.1

Knickpointfinder

• Stolle, A., Schwanghart, W., Andermann, C., Bernhardt, A., Fort, M., Jansen, J.D., Wittmann, H., Merchel, S., Rugel, G., Adhikari, B.R., Korup, O., 2019. Protracted river response to medieval earthquakes. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 44, 331-341. DOI: 10.1002/esp.4517 (The description here is very terse, yet)

Divide functions

• Scherler, D., Schwanghart, W., 2020. Drainage divide networks – Part 1: Identification and ordering in digital elevation models. Earth Surface Dynamics, 8, 245–259. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-8-245-2020

• Scherler, D., Schwanghart, W., 2020. Drainage divide networks – Part 2: Response to perturbations. Earth Surface Dynamics, 8, 261-274. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-8-261-2020

Point patterns on stream networks

• Schwanghart, W., Molkenthin, C., & Scherler, D. (2020). A systematic approach and software for the analysis of point patterns on river networks. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, accepted. DOI: 10.1002/esp.5127

Getting started

Before working with TopoToolbox the directories and functions must be on the search path of Matlab. Enter following code into the command line:

    addpath(genpath('C:\path\to\wherever\you\installed\this\TopoToolbox-2'))
	

To remove .git-folders from the path, run

    rmpath(genpath('C:\path\to\wherever\you\installed\this\TopoToolbox-2\.git'));
	

To make these paths permanent, use the command

	savepath

Type doc in the command line to open the main documentation page. You'll find the TopoToolbox documentation in the section Supplemental Software.
The documentation contains several user's guides that will help you getting started. In addition, TopoToolbox functions have extensive help sections (e.g. help gradient8 or help STREAMobj/modify. An additional resource for code and examples is the TopoToolbox blog.

Version History

pre 2.5

• new function: GRIDobj/randomsample - Create a spatially uniform sample based on a GRIDobj
• new function: tthelp - Search for keywords on the TopoToolbox blog
• new function: meltonruggedness (thanks for pointing out the bug, Kerry Leith!)
• new function: PPS/cdftest
• new function: GRIDobj/evansslope - calculate surface gradient using Evans method
• new function: GRIDobj/GRIDobj2rgb
• new function: getgriddedline(see utilities)
• new function: table2STREAMobj (see IOtools)
• new function: STREAMobj/bifurcationratio
• new function: GRIDobj/createrectmask
• new function: STREAMobj/plotcategorical

2.4

• HyLands 1.0 added: see paper: Campforts, B. et al. (2020): HyLands 1.0: a Hybrid Landscape evolution model to simulate the impact of landslides and landslide-derived sediment on landscape evolution
  Geoscientific Model Development. DOI:10.5194/gmd-13-3863-2020
• new class: DIVIDEobj Paper 1 DOI: 10.5194/esurf-8-245-2020 Paper 2 DOI: 10.5194/esurf-8-261-2020
• new class: PPS DOI: 10.1002/esp.5127
• modification: update to ttscm to Scientific Colormaps 7.0 see Fabio Crameri's website
• new function: FLOWobj/plotdbfringe
• new function: FLOWobj/tfactor
• new function: private in FLOWobj graydistparallel
• new function: GRIDobj/diffusion
• new function: GRIDobj/histogram
• new function: GRIDobj/rand
• new function: PPS/extractvaluesaroundpoints
• new function: STREAMobj/extend2divide
• new function: STREAMobj/binarize
• modification: STREAMobj/modify
• modification: STREAMobj/wmplot
• new function: STREAMobj/loessksn
• new function: STREAMobj/STREAMobj2shape
• new function: STREAMobj/isequal
• new function: STREAMobj/isempty
• new function: STREAMobj/STREAMobj2kml
• new function: STREAMobj/getlocation
• new function: STREAMobj/fastscape
• modification: STREAMobj/smooth
• new function: STREAMobj/mnoptimvar
• modification: STREAMobj/STREAMobj2cell
• modification: STREAMobj/netdist and PPS/netdist
• new function: STREAMobj/istrunk
• modification: STREAMobj/trunk - added second output argument
• modification: GRIDobj/demprofile
• new function: ScaleBar
• new function: xlinerel and ylinerel
• new function: gif by Chad Greene see here
• topoapp was removed from this version
• updates to readopentopo
• updates to utilities: setextent and getextent
• new function: padextent
• new function: ukrainecolor

2.3

• Documentation in the documentation browser
• new function: ttcmap for creating nice colormaps for DEMs, particularly if DEMs include topography and bathymetry
• FLOWobj2gradient renamed to gradient
• new function: ttscm for access to scientific colormaps; see Fabio Crameri's website
• new function: mappingapp (lightweighed GUI for mapping points simultaneously in planform and profile view) still beta!
• new function: FLOWobj/mapfromnal
• enhancement: FLOWobj/multi2single allows area thresholding
• new function: STREAMobj/getvalue
• new function: STREAMobj/hillslopearea
• new function: STREAMobj/zerobaselevel
• new function: STREAMobj/knickpointfinder
• new function: STREAMobj/stackedplotdz
• new function: STREAMobj/sinuosity
• new function: STREAMobj/clean
• new function: STREAMobj/nal2nal
• new function: STREAMobj/netdist
• new function: STREAMobj/tribdir
• new function: GRIDobj/clip
• new function: GRIDobj/GRIDobj2im
• new function: GRIDobj/getextent
• new function: IOtools/readexample
• renamed GRIDobj/project2GRIDobj to GRIDobj/project. In addition, the function has a number of new functionalities.
• modification: STREAMobj/modify has new options for interactively modifying stream networks and to extract streams that confluence from a specified direction.
• changes to readopentopo, getcoordinates, getoutline, polygon2GRIDobj, line2GRIDobj
• new function: hydrosheds2FLOWobj (see in IOtools)
• new function: egm96heights including the grid ww15mgh.grd that contains global geoid undulations based on the EGM96 geoid.

2.2

• TTLEM is part of TopoToolbox; see our paper: Campforts, B., Schwanghart, W., Govers, G. (2017): Accurate simulation of transient landscape evolution by eliminating numerical diffusion: the TTLEM 1.0 model. Earth Surface Dynamics, 5, 47-66. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-5-47-2017
• new functions for smoothing and hydrological correction: STREAMobj/crs, STREAMobj/crsapp, STREAMobj/smooth, STREAMobj/crslin, STREAMobj/quantcarve, FLOWobj/quantcarve; see our paper: Schwanghart, W., Scherler, D., 2017. Bumps in river profiles: uncertainty assessment and smoothing using quantile regression techniques. Earth Surface Dynamics, 5, 821-839. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-5-821-2017
• modification: GRIDobj way to store referencing information was changed
• modification: FLOWobj now supports multiple flow directions and Dinf.
• modification: several new options for imageschs
• new function: FLOWobj/dbentropy
• new function: FLOWobj/updatetoposort
• new function: GRIDobj/aggregate
• new function: GRIDobj/createmask
• new function: GRIDobj/dist2line
• new function: GRIDobj/dist2curve
• new function: GRIDobj/line2GRIDobj
• new function: GRIDobj/GRIDobj2pm
• new function: GRIDobj/minmaxnorm
• new function: GRIDobj/reclabel
• new function: GRIDobj/zscore
• new function: GRIDobj/pad
• new function: STREAMobj/aggregate
• new function: STREAMobj/labelreach
• new function: STREAMobj/distance
• new function: STREAMobj/drainagedensity
• new function: STREAMobj/plotc
• new function: STREAMobj/plotdzshaded
• new function: STREAMobj/meanupstream
• new function: STREAMobj/plot3
• new function: STREAMobj/chitransform
• new function: STREAMobj/cumtrapz
• modification: STREAMobj/modify includes option rmconncomps
• new function: STREAMobj/mchi
• new function: STREAMobj/conncomps
• modification: STREAMobj/extractconncomps (new GUI and behavior)
• modification: STREAMobj/union (new syntax)
• modification: STREAMobj/intersect (new syntax)
• new function: STREAMobj/isnal
• new function: STREAMobj/info
• new function: STREAMobj/orientation
• new function: STREAMobj/plotstreamorder
• new function: STREAMobj/removeedgeeffects
• new function: STREAMobj/split
• new function: STREAMobj/streamproj
• new function: STREAMobj/networksegment
• new function: STREAMobj/maplateral
• new function: STREAMobj/plotsegmentgeometry
• new function: STREAMobj/randlocs
• new function: STREAMobj/zerobaselevel
• modification: STREAMobj/streamorder plotting option removed
• modification: STREAMobj/plotdz includes custom distance option
• modification: STREAMobj/distance includes option to derive distance from different STREAMobj
• modification: STREAMobj/STREAMobj2cell
• modification: STREAMobj/STREAMobj2mapstruct
• new function: STREAMobj/transformcoords
• new function: FLOWobj/FLOWobj2cell
• update to several FLOWobj methods to avoid speed loss for MATLAB versions newer than R2015b
• removed bug in GRIDobj/curvature

2.1

• new function: GRIDobj/excesstopography; see our paper Blöthe, J.H., Korup, O., Schwanghart, W. (2015): Large landslides lie low: Excess topography in the Himalaya-Karakorum ranges. Geology, 43, 523-526. DOI: 10.1130/G36527.1
• new function: GRIDobj/GRIDobj2polygon
• new function: STREAMobj/getnal
• new function: STREAMobj/sidebranching
• new function: STREAMobj/mincosthydrocon
• new function: STREAMobj/intersectlocs
• new function: STREAMobj/densify
• new function: STREAMobj/plot3d
• new function: STREAMobj/widenstream
• new function: demo_modifystreamnet
• modification of the function slopearea
• better performance of FLOWobj when converting from flow direction matrix by using dmperm to perform topological sort
• new function: GRIDobj/toposhielding
• new function: demarea (incorporation of Juernjakob Dugge's function: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/42204-calculate-dem-surface-area )
• new function: GRIDobj/getoutline
• removed a bug when some functions such log, log10 were called with integer GRIDobjs
• additional overloading of built-in functions for GRIDobjs. We added matrix arithmetics, which, however, perform element-wise operations (e.g. mtimes can be used with GRIDobj now, but performs times)
• the scope of the function GRIDobj/localtopography was enhanced (min, max, percentiles, etc in a disk-shaped neighborhood)
• FLOWobj/streampoi and STREAMobj/streampoi now return 'bconfluences', e.g. stream pixels that in downstream direction are located immediately before confluences.
• new function: STREAMobj/imposemin - limits downstream minima imposition to the stream network
• several bug fixes
• demo_modifystreamnet.m
• preprocessapp was removed

V2.0.1

• removed bug in GRIDobj
• removed bug with case-sensitivity in some functions
• removed bug with internal drainage option in FLOWobj

V2.0

• new functions STREAMobj/intersect, STREAMobj/union
• new interactive tools in STREAMobj/modify
• new interactive tool GRIDobj/measure

V2.0beta

V2.0 introduces an object oriented approach towards grid representation, flow direction, stream networks and swath objects. The performance of various, inparticular flow related, functions was increased. Mex-files have been written to increase the speed of some functions and are delivered as 64bit Windows binaries. They have been compiled on Windows 7 with an Intel processor, so they should be compiled before using them, if your system differs. However, compiling is not mandatory, since m versions are available, too, which are a little slower. Please refer to the Contents.m file for a complete list of functions.

V1.06 --- 11. November 2011

• new function: acv
• new function: cropmat
• new function: dbentropy
• new function: deminpaint
• new function: exaggerate
• new function: label2poly
• new function: routegeodesic (as optimal method for routing through flats and pits). Requires Matlab 2011b and will be made the default routing algorithm in future releases.
• new function: upslopesidelength
• new function: upslopestats
• new function: getextent and setextent
• function enhancements: rasterread and rasterwrite.
• function enhancements: roughness
• new users guide on processing flat areas
• the baranja_hill.mat dataset was added. It was obtained from here: http://geomorphometry.org/content/baranja-hill

V1.05 --- 15. September 2010

• some of the functions now employ the function validateattributes to check input arguments. Note that this might return a warning on older versions than 2009a.
• a bug in routeflats was removed
• new function: M2UV
• new function: twi
• new function: aspect
• new function: ismulti
• new function: postprocflats
• new function: demsobel
• new function: hypscurve
• new function: roughness
• removed bug in flowacc. flowacc returned an error when called with three input arguments
• gradient8 allows you to output different angular units, major speed increase when called with gradient as sole output argument.
• functional enhancements to flowdistance (see help flowdistance)
• functional enhancements to identifyflats
• rasterread and rasterwrite now feature dialog boxes for reading and saving files if no filenames are supplied to the function
• flowdistanceds can now calculate the maximum downward flowpath distance for each cell at one step.

V1.04 --- 5. January 2010 - first public release

• a bug in flowacc_lm was removed. When a weight matrix W0 was supplied as additional input argument, W0 was set to dem.
• new function: imageschs
• minor changes to hillshade were made. The algorithm is now based on method proposed by Katzil and Doytsher, 2003.
• flowacc allows for another input argument (runoff ratio).

V1.03 --- 5. November 2009

• sub-basin analysis has been added as new functionality (see sbstruct, sbplot, sbprops)
• new function: adjustgauges

V1.02 --- 30. October 2009

• major speed enhancement for fillsinks with maximum fill depth

V1.01 --- 16. September 2009

• hillshade plots the hillshade matrix when no output arguments are defined.
• flowacc_lm was optimized, so that large, flat areas are handled more memory efficiently.
• a bug in routeflats was removed.
• crossflats was updated to run most efficient on Matlab R2009a.
• drainagebasins functionality was enhanced to allow for the delineation of drainage basins of specified order. The former support of multiple flow direction has been removed.
• new function: drainagedensity
• new function: shufflelabel
• influencemap got a second output Mstreams

V1.0 --- 15. March 2009

• release