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Validate Flow Direction (Spatial Analyst Tools)

Summary

Identifies cells that result in flow loops on a flow direction raster.

Usage

  • The output point features represent the locations where flow loops have been identified. A loop occurs when the flow directions form a circular path or the cells flow towards each other.

  • This tool supports the D8 and multiple flow direction (MFD) flow direction types. These can be created using the Flow Direction tool or the Derive Continuous Flow tool.

  • See Analysis environments and Spatial Analyst for additional details on the geoprocessing environments that apply to this tool.

Parameters

Label Explanation Data type

Input Flow Direction Raster

The input raster that shows the direction of flow out of each cell.

Use the Flow Direction Type parameter to specify the method used when the flow direction raster was created.

Raster Layer

Output Point Features

The output feature class that will contain the cell locations where flow loops occur.

Each input cell that is part of a loop will be assigned a unique number.

Additional fields are added to the attribute table recording specific information about the point features.

  • The LoopID field records which cells belong to the same loop.

  • The FlowDir field records the flow direction value from the input raster.

  • The Col field records the raster column index of the loop cell.

  • The Row field records the raster row index of the loop cell.

Feature Class

Input Flow Direction Type

(Optional)

Specifies the input flow direction raster type.

  • D8The input flow direction raster is of type D8. This is the default.

  • MFDThe input flow direction raster is of type Multiple Flow Direction (MFD).

String

Environments

Extent, Mask, Auto Commit, Current Workspace, Geographic Transformations, M Resolution, M Tolerance, Output CONFIG Keyword, Output Coordinate System, Output has M values, Output M Domain, Output XY Domain, Scratch Workspace, XY Resolution, XY Tolerance

Licensing information

  • Basic: Requires Spatial Analyst
  • Standard: Requires Spatial Analyst
  • Advanced: Requires Spatial Analyst