Elevation above stream-QGIS whitebox plugin

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Sima Mohtashami

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Jan 31, 2025, 10:38:07 AMJan 31

to WhiteboxTools

Hi. I am trying to run the tool "elevation above stream", using a DEM and raster streams, get a result which looks a bit strange to me: a raster which visualize this index just along the streams. wanted to make sure if it is how the results should look like? I expected a contiguous raster over the whole DEM-extent!

EAS-raster.JPG

Whitebox Geospatial Inc

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Jan 31, 2025, 11:11:57 AMJan 31

to Sima Mohtashami, WhiteboxTools

Hi Sima,

It’s likely one of two things. First, if your streams raster was created by rasterizing a vector stream network, it is fairly common for the stream raster to have a value of 1.0 for stream cells and NoData for non-stream cells. However, for the elevation above streams tool, any cell in either the input DEM or streams raster that has a NoData value will place NoData in the corresponding cell of the output raster. So make sure that your streams raster is Boolean, i.e. 1 for streams, 0 for non-streams background cells.

Secondly, your DEM must be depressionless. I would suggest running the least-cost breaching tool on it before inputting it to this particular tool.

Finally, if you have a license for the Whitebox Toolset Extension (WTE) I would recommend using the Depth-to-Water (see https://www.whiteboxgeo.com/manual/wbt_book/available_tools/hydrological_analysis.html#DepthToWater) tool instead of elevation above streams. It will provide an output that is much better. Specifically, you won’t see the steep changes in value at drainage divides that you do with the elevation above streams tool. Of course, this requires purchasing a license for the extension however, which may not be something that you’re able to do. Good luck and happy processing!

Regards,

John

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