Flags:

-m

Use meters to define search units (default is cells)

-e

Use extended form correction

--overwrite

Allow output files to overwrite existing files

--help

Print usage summary

--verbose

Verbose module output

--quiet

Quiet module output

--ui

Force launching GUI dialog

Parameters:

elevation=name [required]

Name of input elevation raster map

forms=name

Most common geomorphic forms

ternary=name

Code of ternary patterns

positive=name

Code of binary positive patterns

negative=name

Code of binary negative patterns

intensity=name

Rasters containing mean relative elevation of the form

exposition=name

Rasters containing maximum difference between extend and central cell

range=name

Rasters containing difference between max and min elevation of the form extend

variance=name

Rasters containing variance of form boundary

elongation=name

Rasters containing local elongation

azimuth=name

Rasters containing local azimuth of the elongation

extend=name

Rasters containing local extend (area) of the form

width=name

Rasters containing local width of the form

search=integer [required]

Outer search radius
Default: 3

skip=integer [required]

Inner search radius
Default: 0

flat=float [required]

Flatness threshold (degrees)
Default: 1

dist=float [required]

Flatness distance, zero for none
Default: 0

prefix=string

Prefix for maps resulting from multiresolution approach

step=float

Distance step for every iteration (zero to omit)
Default: 0

start=float

Distance where search will start in multiple mode (zero to omit)
Default: 0

What is geomorphon:

Geomorphon is a new concept of presentation and analysis of terrain forms. This concept utilises 8-tuple pattern of the visibility neighbourhood and breaks well known limitation of standard calculus approach where all terrain forms cannot be detected in a single window size. The pattern arises from a comparison of a focus pixel with its eight neighbors starting from the one located to the east and continuing counterclockwise producing ternary operator. For example, a tuple {+,-,-,-,0,+,+,+} describes one possible pattern of relative measures {higher, lower, lower, lower, equal, higher, higher, higher} for pixels surrounding the focus pixel. It is important to stress that the visibility neighbors are not necessarily an immediate neighbors of the focus pixel in the grid, but the pixels determined from the line-of-sight principle along the eight principal directions. This principle relates surface relief and horizontal distance by means of so-called zenith and nadir angles along the eight principal compass directions. The ternary operator converts the information contained in all the pairs of zenith and nadir angles into the ternary pattern (8-tuple). The result depends on the values of two parameters: search radius (L) and relief threshold (d). The search radius is the maximum allowable distance for calculation of zenith and nadir angles. The relief threshold is a minimum value of difference between LOSs angle (zenith and nadir) that is considered significantly different from the horizon. Two lines-of-sight are necessary due to zenith LOS only, does not detect positive forms correctly.

There are 3**8 = 6561 possible ternary patterns (8-tuples). However by eliminating all patterns that are results of either rotation or reflection of other patterns wa set of 498 patterns remain referred as geomorphons. This is a comprehensive and exhaustive set of idealized landforms that are independent of the size, relief, and orientation of the actual landform.

Form recognition depends on two free parameters: Search radius and flatness threshold. Using larger values of L and is tantamount to terrain classification from a higher and wider perspective, whereas using smaller values of L and is tantamount to terrain classification from a local point of view. A character of the map depends on the value of L. Using small value of L results in the map that correctly identifies landforms if their size is smaller than L; landforms having larger sizes are broken down into components. Using larger values of L allows simultaneous identification of landforms on variety of sizes in expense of recognition smaller, second-order forms. There are two additional parameters: skip radius used to eliminate impact of small irregularities. On the contrary flatness distance eliminates the impact of very high distance (in meters) of search radius which may not detect elevation difference if this is at very far distance. Important especially with low resolution DEMS.

Forms represented by geomorphons:

ternary

returns code of one of 498 unique ternary patterns for every cell. The code is a decimal representation of 8-tuple minimalised patterns written in ternary system. Full list of patterns is available in source code directory as patterns.txt. This map can be used to create alternative form classification using supervised approach.

positive and negative

returns codes binary patterns for zenith (positive) and nadir (negative) line of sights. The code is a decimal representation of 8-tuple minimalised patterns written in binary system. Full list of patterns is available in source code directory as patterns.txt.

NOTE: parameters below are very experimental. The usefulness of these parameters are currently under investigation.

intensity

returns avarage difference between central cell of geomorphon and eight cells in visibility neighbourhood. This parameter shows local (as is visible) exposition/abasement of the form in the terrain.

range

returns difference between minimum and maximum values of visibility neighbourhood.

variance

returns variance (difference between particular values and mean value) of visibility neighbourhood.

extend

returns area of the polygon created by the 8 points where line-of-sight cuts the terrain (see image in description section).

azimuth

returns orientation of the polygon constituting geomorphon. This orientation is currently calculated as a orientation of least square fit line to the eight verticles of this polygon.

elongation

returns proportion between sides of the bounding box rectangle calculated for geomorphon rotated to fit least square line.

width

returns length of the shorter side of the bounding box rectangle calculated for geomorphon rotated to fit least square line.

Geomorphon calculation: extraction of terrestrial landforms

g.region raster=eu_dem_25m -p
r.geomorphon elevation=eu_dem_25m forms=eu_dem_25m_geomorph
# verify terrestrial landforms found in DEM
r.category eu_dem_25m_geomorph
 1  flat
 2  summit
 3  ridge
 4  shoulder
 5  spur
 6  slope
 7  hollow
 8  footslope
 9  valley
 10 depression

Extraction of summits

r.mapcalc expression="eu_dem_25m_summits = if(eu_dem_25m_geomorph == 2, 1, null())"
r.thin input=eu_dem_25m_summits output=eu_dem_25m_summits_thinned
r.to.vect input=eu_dem_25m_summits_thinned output=eu_dem_25m_summits type=point
v.info input=eu_dem_25m_summits