Generate Elevation Bands (Topographic Production Tools)

Summary

Creates an elevation bands feature class from a digital elevation model (DEM).

Usage

The Area of Interest parameter must have only one selected feature in the map sheet extent.
The Hydro Exclusion Features parameter is used to identify large bodies of water and coastal areas that would significantly alter the area of the elevation bands.
Elevation bands are created with their limits aligned to the Contour Interval parameter value, except low and high values, which will represent their actual calculated values.
If more than one input raster is used, all input rasters must have the same cell size, band count, and pixel type. All input rasters should also use the same elevation units (meters or feet).

Label	Explanation	Data type
Input Raster	The rasters that will be used to create elevation bands.	Raster Layer; Mosaic Layer
Area of Interest	The layer that will define the processing extent.	Feature Layer
Output Feature Class	The feature class containing the output elevation band features.	Feature Class
Contour Interval	Specifies the contour interval that will be used to determine the closest available contour when calculating the elevation band area. 10—A contour interval of 10 will be used. 20—A contour interval of 20 will be used. This is the default. 40—A contour interval of 40 will be used. 80—A contour interval of 80 will be used.	Long
Minimum Feature Area	The minimum area of the output polygons. Features smaller than this value will be removed. The default is 0.00016 square decimal degrees. Note: If you're creating an output dataset with a projected coordinate system, ensure that this value reflects the square units of that coordinate system—for example, square meters for a UTM dataset. Otherwise, the default value may result in an empty output dataset.	Double
Smoothing Tolerance	The tolerance that will be used by the smoothing algorithm. The larger the value, the more generalized the output band features. The default is 0.002 decimal degrees.	Linear Unit
Hydro Exclusion Features (Optional)	The bodies of water that will be excluded when calculating the elevation band area.	Feature Layer
Number of Elevation Bands (Optional)	Specifies the number of elevation bands that will be generated. 1—One elevation band will be generated. 2—Two elevation bands will be generated. 3—Three elevation bands will be generated. 4—Four elevation bands will be generated.	Long

arcpy.topographic.GenerateElevationBands(in_raster, in_aoi, out_feature_class, contour_interval, min_area, smooth_tolerance, {in_hydro_features}, {number_of_bands})

Name	Explanation	Data type
in_raster [in_raster,...]	The rasters that will be used to create elevation bands.	Raster Layer; Mosaic Layer
in_aoi	The layer that will define the processing extent.	Feature Layer
out_feature_class	The feature class containing the output elevation band features.	Feature Class
contour_interval	Specifies the contour interval that will be used to determine the closest available contour when calculating the elevation band area. `10`—A contour interval of 10 will be used. `20`—A contour interval of 20 will be used. This is the default. `40`—A contour interval of 40 will be used. `80`—A contour interval of 80 will be used.	Long
min_area	The minimum area of the output polygons. Features smaller than this value will be removed. The default is 0.00016 square decimal degrees. Note: If you're creating an output dataset with a projected coordinate system, ensure that this value reflects the square units of that coordinate system—for example, square meters for a UTM dataset. Otherwise, the default value may result in an empty output dataset.	Double
smooth_tolerance	The tolerance that will be used by the smoothing algorithm. The larger the value, the more generalized the output band features. The default is 0.002 decimal degrees.	Linear Unit
in_hydro_features (Optional)	The bodies of water that will be excluded when calculating the elevation band area.	Feature Layer
number_of_bands (Optional)	Specifies the number of elevation bands that will be generated. `1`—One elevation band will be generated. `2`—Two elevation bands will be generated. `3`—Three elevation bands will be generated. `4`—Four elevation bands will be generated.	Long

Code sample

GenerateElevationBands example (stand-alone script)

The following code sample creates a raster layer from ArcGIS Topographic Mapping sample data. The script runs the GenerateElevationBands function using the raster layer and writes the output to a file geodatabase at C:\Temp. You need to have the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension and the Topographic Mapping extension enabled.

# Name: GenerateElevationBands_sample.py
# Description: Use the Generate Elevation Bands tool to create a new output feature class with elevation bands for cartography

# Import System Modules
import arcpy

# Setting Local Variables
in_raster = r'C:\Temp\Monterey.dt2'
in_aoi = r'C:\Temp\MapIndex.gdb\Index_Polygons'
output_features = r'C:\Temp\Test.gdb\Output_Elevation_Bands'
contour_interval = 20
minimum_area = '0.00016'
tolerance = '0.02 DecimalDegrees'
in_hydro_exclusion = r'C:\Temp\Test.gdb\Hydro_Polygons'
number_of_bands = 3

# Creating feature layer and selecting an index feature
query = "PRODUCT_ID = 'V795X16573'"
aoi_layer = arcpy.management.MakeFeatureLayer(in_aoi, 'AOI').getOutput(0)
arcpy.management.SelectLayerByAttribute(aoi_layer, 'NEW_SELECTION', query)

# Creating feature layer and setting definition query for tidal water features
exclusion_layer = arcpy.management.MakeFeatureLayer(in_hydro_exclusion, 'HYDRO', "TYPE = 'Tidal Water'").getOutput(0)

# Calling Generate Elevation Bands tool
arcpy.topographic.GenerateElevationBands(in_raster, aoi_layer, output_features, contour_interval, minimum_area, tolerance,
                                         exclusion_layer, number_of_bands)

Environments

This tool does not use any geoprocessing environments.

Licensing information

Basic: No
Standard: No
Advanced: Requires Topographic Mapping or Aviation Airports or Aviation Charting or Maritime or Bathymetry and Spatial Analyst