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xdem.DEM.curvature

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xdem.DEM.curvature#

DEM.curvature(use_richdem=False)[source]#

Calculate the terrain curvature (second derivative of elevation) in m-1 multiplied by 100.

Based on Zevenbergen and Thorne (1987), http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/esp.3290120107.

Information:

  • Curvature is positive on convex surfaces and negative on concave surfaces.

  • Per convention, it is multiplied by 100 to obtain more reasonable numbers. For analytic purposes, dividing by 100 is needed.

  • The unit is the second derivative of elevation (times 100), so ‘100m²/m’ or ‘100/m’ (assuming the unit is m).

  • It is created from the second derivative of a quadric surface fit for each pixel. See xdem.terrain.get_quadric_coefficients() for more information.

Parameters:

use_richdem (bool) – Whether to use RichDEM to compute the attribute.

Raises:

ValueError – If the inputs are poorly formatted.

Return type:

TypeVar(RasterType, bound= Raster)

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