TopoToolbox is a MATLAB-based software designed for the analysis and visualization of topographic data. It provides a comprehensive set of tools for processing Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), extracting drainage networks, analyzing river profiles, and performing geomorphometric calculations. In addition, TopoToolbox facilitates hydrological modeling and landscape evolution studies. Its efficient algorithms and interactive visualization capabilities allow for detailed analysis of terrain features, helping to understand landscape processes and topographic changes over time.
Primary uses of TopoToolbox are in the field of geomorphology, hydrology, structural geology and tectonics, but there are many other applications ranging from meteorology to glaciology.
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TopoToolbox v3 is plat-form independent and requires MATLAB R2023b or higher and the Image Processing Toolbox. The Mapping Toolbox is not mandatory, but good to have to facilitate easy data exchange with GIS software. Some functions support parallelisation using the Parallel Toolbox. Few functions require the Optimization or Statistics and Machine Learning Toolbox.
If you are using an older version of MATLAB (< R2023b), use TopoToolbox 2.
The easiest way to get started with TopoToolbox 3 is to download the topotoolbox.mltbx file from the GitHub repository releases area. Double-click on the downloaded file to run the MATLAB add-on installer. This will copy the files to your MATLAB add-ons area and add TopoToolbox to your MATLAB search path.
Later, you can use the MATLAB Add-On Manager to uninstall.
As a developer, we recommend to fork and clone the TopoToolbox3 GitHub repository. Start by navigating to the original repository on GitHub and clicking the Fork button in the top right. This creates a copy of the repository in your own GitHub account. Next, clone the forked repository to your computer. Please read the contributor guidelines more about how to contribute code to TopoToolbox.
Alternatively, you can download the repository and save it to some folder on your harddrive. Before working with TopoToolbox the directories and functions must be on the search path of MATLAB. To do this, navigate your working directory to the topotoolbox3/toolbox folder and run the command:
tt2path
To make these paths permanent, use the command (this may require system administrator privileges).
savepath
The documentation will not be included in the code. To build the documentation, go to the folder docs and run the command
publishtthelp2html
This will build html-files that can be viewed in MATLABs documentation. You'll find the TopoToolbox documentation in the section Supplemental Software, once you restart MATLAB. The documentation contains several user's guides that will help you getting started. In addition, TopoToolbox functions have extensive help sections (e.g. help gradient8 or help STREAMobj/modify. An additional resource for code and examples is the TopoToolbox blog.
Finally, TopoToolbox comes with bindings to libtopotoolbox, a C-library for terrain analysis. Currently, all TopoToolbox functions will work also without libtopotoolbox. To compile libtopotoolbox, navigate to the topotoolbox3-folder and run the command
buildtool compile
To check whether compilation ran successfully, the following command
haslibtopotoolbox
should return true.
Once you have TopoToolbox installed, you should get started with reading a DEM into a GRIDobj, the numerical class containing single-band raster datasets. TopoToolbox comes with an example file which you can read using the following command.
DEM = GRIDobj('srtm_bigtujunga30m_utm11.tif');
Now plot this data using imageschs.
imageschs(DEM)
Well done. If this works, your TopoToolbox installation should run. Now, check out the following introductory texts:
| Getting started | Calculate ksn | Multiple flow directions |
|---|---|---|
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To see a list of all object methods (there are more functions available), see this page.
When you use TopoToolbox in your work, please reference following publication:
- Schwanghart, W., Scherler, D. (2014): TopoToolbox 2 – MATLAB-based software for topographic analysis and modeling in Earth surface sciences. Earth Surface Dynamics, 2, 1-7. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-2-1-2014
If you are using version 1, then please refer to this publication:
- Schwanghart, W., Kuhn, N.J. (2010): TopoToolbox: a set of MATLAB functions for topographic analysis. Environmental Modelling & Software, 25, 770-781. DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2009.12.002
In addition, various models and algorithms implemented in TopoToolbox have been published in the following articles.
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Schwanghart, W., Groom, G.B., Kuhn, N.J., Heckrath, G., 2013: Flow network derivation from a high resolution DEM in a low relief, agrarian landscape. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 38, 1576-1586. DOI: 10.1002/esp.3452
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Schwanghart, W., Scherler, D., 2017. Bumps in river profiles: uncertainty assessment and smoothing using quantile regression techniques. Earth Surface Dynamics, 5, 821-839. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-5-821-2017
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Campforts, B., Schwanghart, W., Govers, G. (2017): Accurate simulation of transient landscape evolution by eliminating numerical diffusion: the TTLEM 1.0 model. Earth Surface Dynamics, 5, 47-66. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-5-47-2017
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HyLands: Campforts B., Shobe M.C., et al. (2020): HyLands 1.0: a Hybrid Landscape evolution model to simulate the impact of landslides and landslide-derived sediment on landscape evolution. Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 3863–3886. DOI: 10.5194/gmd-13-3863-2020
- Blöthe, J.H., Korup, O., Schwanghart, W., 2015: Large landslides lie low: Excess topography in the Himalaya-Karakorum ranges. Geology, 43, 523-526. DOI: 10.1130/G36527.1
- Stolle, A., Schwanghart, W., Andermann, C., Bernhardt, A., Fort, M., Jansen, J.D., Wittmann, H., Merchel, S., Rugel, G., Adhikari, B.R., Korup, O., 2019. Protracted river response to medieval earthquakes. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 44, 331-341. DOI: 10.1002/esp.4517 (The description here is very terse, yet)
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Scherler, D., Schwanghart, W., 2020. Drainage divide networks – Part 1: Identification and ordering in digital elevation models. Earth Surface Dynamics, 8, 245–259. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-8-245-2020
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Scherler, D., Schwanghart, W., 2020. Drainage divide networks – Part 2: Response to perturbations. Earth Surface Dynamics, 8, 261-274. DOI: 10.5194/esurf-8-261-2020
- Schwanghart, W., Molkenthin, C., & Scherler, D. (2020). A systematic approach and software for the analysis of point patterns on river networks. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 46, 9, 1847-1862. DOI: 10.1002/esp.5127