Exploring a subset of SAGA's Terrain Analysis tools

Purpose

This tutorial focuses on the use of terrain analysis tools found in SAGA. Importing data into SAGA and visualizing the data will be described, and the terrain analysis, specifically plan curvature will be performed within SAGA`s basic terrain analysis toolset. The results of the tool will then be analyzed and explained.

This tutorial will cover the steps to extract plan view curvature values from elevation data within SAGA.

Software

SAGA is a free and open source program which can be downloaded here: http://www.saga-gis.org/en/index.html

It will run on Windows operating system, and within a virtual machine if one wanted to run it on another operating system.

Data

The data used in this tutorial is 1 m elevation data, any digital elevation model (DEM) will work in this tutorial. Similar data can be found online, on sites such as geogratis (http://geogratis.gc.ca/geogratis/en/search) and will be free and easily downloadable.

Reference

SAGA software: http://www.saga-gis.org/en/index.html GeoGratis: http://geogratis.gc.ca/geogratis/en/search