Short Communication: TopoToolbox 2 – MATLAB-based software for topographic analysis and modeling in Earth surface sciences

Abstract. TopoToolbox is a MATLAB program for the analysis of digital elevation models (DEMs). With the release of version 2, the software adopts an object-oriented programming (OOP) approach to work with gridded DEMs and derived data such as flow directions and stream networks. The introduction of a novel technique to store flow directions as topologically ordered vectors of indices enables calculation of flow-related attributes such as flow accumulation ∼20 times faster than conventional algorithms while at the same time reducing memory overhead to 33% of that required by the previous version. Graphical user interfaces (GUIs) enable visual exploration and interaction with DEMs and derivatives and provide access to tools targeted at fluvial and tectonic geomorphologists. With its new release, TopoToolbox has become a more memory-efficient and faster tool for basic and advanced digital terrain analysis that can be used as a framework for building hydrological and geomorphological models in MATLAB.

[1]  T. Jarmer,et al.  Linking spatial patterns of soil organic carbon to topography — A case study from south-eastern Spain , 2011 .

[2]  S. Fagherazzi,et al.  An implicit finite difference method for drainage basin evolution , 2002 .

[3]  B. Bookhagen,et al.  Tectonic control on 10Be‐derived erosion rates in the Garhwal Himalaya, India , 2014 .

[4]  P. Renard,et al.  A pseudo-genetic stochastic model to generate karstic networks , 2012 .

[5]  Jeffrey Scott Vitter,et al.  Efficient Flow Computation on Massive Grid Terrain Datasets , 2003, GeoInformatica.

[6]  G. Willgoose.  Mathematical Modeling of Whole Landscape Evolution , 2005 .

[7]  John F. O'Callaghan,et al.  The extraction of drainage networks from digital elevation data , 1984, Comput. Vis. Graph. Image Process..

[8]  Jean Braun,et al.  A very efficient O(n), implicit and parallel method to solve the stream power equation governing fluvial incision and landscape evolution , 2013 .

[9]  Irena F. Creed,et al.  Distinguishing actual and artefact depressions in digital elevation data , 2006, Comput. Geosci..

[10]  Kwan Tun Lee,et al.  An efficient method for DEM-based overland flow routing , 2013 .

[11]  J. Pelletier.  Quantitative Modeling of Earth Surface Processes , 2008 .

[12]  R. Colombo,et al.  Carving and adaptive drainage enforcement of grid digital elevation models , 2003 .

[13]  G. Tucker,et al.  Modelling landscape evolution , 2010 .

[14]  Pierre Soille,et al.  Morphological carving , 2004, Pattern Recognit. Lett..

[15]  P. Nienow,et al.  Modelling the delivery of supraglacial meltwater to the ice/bed interface: application to southwest Devon Ice Cap, Nunavut, Canada , 2012 .

[16]  D. Tarboton.  A new method for the determination of flow directions and upslope areas in grid digital elevation models , 1997 .

[17]  P. Soille,et al.  Influence of pit removal methods on river network position , 2012 .

[18]  K. Messier,et al.  Integrating address geocoding, land use regression, and spatiotemporal geostatistical estimation for groundwater tetrachloroethylene. , 2012, Environmental science & technology.

[19]  L. Royden,et al.  An integral approach to bedrock river profile analysis , 2013 .

[20]  Matthew Baker,et al.  Extraction of hydrological proximity measures from DEMs using parallel processing , 2011, Environ. Model. Softw..

[21]  Luc Vincent,et al.  Morphological grayscale reconstruction in image analysis: applications and efficient algorithms , 1993, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[22]  Jeroen C. J. H. Aerts,et al.  Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis of coastal flood damage estimates in the west of the Netherlands , 2012 .

[23]  Helena Mitasova,et al.  Efficient extraction of drainage networks from massive, radar-based elevation models with least cost path search , 2011 .

[24]  Andy H. Register.  A Guide to MATLAB Object-Oriented Programming , 2007 .

[25]  L. Wang,et al.  An efficient method for identifying and filling surface depressions in digital elevation models for hydrologic analysis and modelling , 2006, Int. J. Geogr. Inf. Sci..

[26]  Wolfgang Schwanghart,et al.  TopoToolbox: A set of Matlab functions for topographic analysis , 2010, Environ. Model. Softw..

[27]  S. Gruber,et al.  Land-Surface parameters and objects in hydrology , 2008 .

[28]  Jaroslaw Jasiewicz,et al.  A new GRASS GIS fuzzy inference system for massive data analysis , 2011, Comput. Geosci..

[29]  M. Hutchinson,et al.  Digital terrain analysis. , 2008 .

[30]  D. Goodrich,et al.  Digital elevation data , 1990 .

[31]  W. Dietrich,et al.  Geomorphic transport laws for predicting landscape form and dynamics , 2013 .

[32]  N. Snyder,et al.  Tectonics from topography: Procedures, promise, and pitfalls , 2006 .

[33]  Arjun M. Heimsath,et al.  Transient fluvial incision in the headwaters of the Yellow River, northeastern Tibet, China , 2007 .

[34]  Richard Gloaguen,et al.  TecDEM: A MATLAB based toolbox for tectonic geomorphology, Part 1: Drainage network preprocessing and stream profile analysis , 2011, Comput. Geosci..

[35]  K. Beven,et al.  THE PREDICTION OF HILLSLOPE FLOW PATHS FOR DISTRIBUTED HYDROLOGICAL MODELLING USING DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELS , 1991 .

[36]  Wolfgang Schwanghart,et al.  Flow network derivation from a high resolution DEM in a low relief, agrarian landscape , 2013 .

[37]  M. Costa-Cabral,et al.  Digital Elevation Model Networks (DEMON): A model of flow over hillslopes for computation of contributing and dispersal areas , 1994 .