Creating perpendicular transects to stream at specified intervals using ArcMap

Question

My goal is to input a line, segment it in an evenly distributed way by a specified distance, convert the vertices to points, then draw lines perpendicular to the segment at a specified distance. These lines will then be converted to point in a similar fashion and return the maximum elevation value both east and west of each point. This whole process is meant to extract samples of an approximation of bank height for a river. I have found tools and processes that do the line segmentation (even though annoyingly it seems one cannot access the nifty Editor toolbar processes in python), but I am having trouble finding a script that makes the perpendicular transect lines.

Has anyone done anything like this before?

Note: I have found the script here, but it has too many malfunctions and I gave up trying to fix it (http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/49206-Perpendicular-transects-at-regular-intervals).

Answer 1

Also see Perpendicular Transects Perpendicular Transects on web.archive.org post and ArcGIS 10 toolbox and python script by Mateus Ferreira. It creates perpendicular lines at regular intervals along the line, but also has an option for deriving the split distance from a field name.

The page links back to several related discussions with partial solutions here on GIS Stack Exchange which may be of interest to those building or enhancing their own tools.

Mateus' script:

# Import system modules
import arcpy
from arcpy import env
import math
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True
#Set environments
arcpy.env.overwriteOutput = True
arcpy.env.XYResolution = "0.00001 Meters"
arcpy.env.XYTolerance = "0.0001 Meters"
Set local variables
env.workspace = arcpy.GetParameterAsText(0)
Lines=arcpy.GetParameterAsText(1)
SplitType=arcpy.GetParameterAsText(2)
DistanceSplit=float(arcpy.GetParameterAsText(3))
TransecLength=arcpy.GetParameterAsText(4)
TransecLength_Unit=arcpy.GetParameterAsText(5)
OutputTransect=arcpy.GetParameterAsText(6)
Def splitline module
###START SPLIT LINE CODE IN A SAME DISTANCE### Source: http://nodedangles.wordpress.com/2011/05/01/quick-dirty-arcpy-batch-splitting-polylines-to-a-specific-length/
def splitline (inFC,FCName,alongDist):
OutDir = env.workspace
outFCName = FCName
outFC = OutDir+"/"+outFCName

def distPoint(p1, p2):
    calc1 = p1.X - p2.X
    calc2 = p1.Y - p2.Y

    return math.sqrt((calc1**2)+(calc2**2))

def midpoint(prevpoint,nextpoint,targetDist,totalDist):
    newX = prevpoint.X + ((nextpoint.X - prevpoint.X) * (targetDist/totalDist))
    newY = prevpoint.Y + ((nextpoint.Y - prevpoint.Y) * (targetDist/totalDist))
    return arcpy.Point(newX, newY)

def splitShape(feat,splitDist):
    # Count the number of points in the current multipart feature
    #
    partcount = feat.partCount
    partnum = 0
    # Enter while loop for each part in the feature (if a singlepart feature
    # this will occur only once)
    #
    lineArray = arcpy.Array()

    while partnum < partcount:
          # Print the part number
          #
          #print "Part " + str(partnum) + ":"
          part = feat.getPart(partnum)
          #print part.count

          totalDist = 0

          pnt = part.next()
          pntcount = 0

          prevpoint = None
          shapelist = []

          # Enter while loop for each vertex
          #
          while pnt:

                if not (prevpoint is None):
                    thisDist = distPoint(prevpoint,pnt)
                    maxAdditionalDist = splitDist - totalDist

                    print thisDist, totalDist, maxAdditionalDist

                    if (totalDist+thisDist)> splitDist:
                          while(totalDist+thisDist) > splitDist:
                                maxAdditionalDist = splitDist - totalDist
                                #print thisDist, totalDist, maxAdditionalDist
                                newpoint = midpoint(prevpoint,pnt,maxAdditionalDist,thisDist)
                                lineArray.add(newpoint)
                                shapelist.append(lineArray)

                                lineArray = arcpy.Array()
                                lineArray.add(newpoint)
                                prevpoint = newpoint
                                thisDist = distPoint(prevpoint,pnt)
                                totalDist = 0

                          lineArray.add(pnt)
                          totalDist+=thisDist
                    else:
                          totalDist+=thisDist
                          lineArray.add(pnt)
                          #shapelist.append(lineArray)
                else:
                    lineArray.add(pnt)
                    totalDist = 0

                prevpoint = pnt                
                pntcount += 1

                pnt = part.next()

                # If pnt is null, either the part is finished or there is an
                #   interior ring
                #
                if not pnt:
                    pnt = part.next()
                    if pnt:
                          print "Interior Ring:"
          partnum += 1

    if (lineArray.count > 1):
          shapelist.append(lineArray)

    return shapelist

if arcpy.Exists(outFC):
    arcpy.Delete_management(outFC)

arcpy.Copy_management(inFC,outFC)

#origDesc = arcpy.Describe(inFC)
#sR = origDesc.spatialReference

#revDesc = arcpy.Describe(outFC)
#revDesc.ShapeFieldName

deleterows = arcpy.UpdateCursor(outFC)
for iDRow in deleterows:       
     deleterows.deleteRow(iDRow)

try:
    del iDRow
    del deleterows
except:
    pass

inputRows = arcpy.SearchCursor(inFC)
outputRows = arcpy.InsertCursor(outFC)
fields = arcpy.ListFields(inFC)

numRecords = int(arcpy.GetCount_management(inFC).getOutput(0))
OnePercentThreshold = numRecords // 100

#printit(numRecords)

iCounter = 0
iCounter2 = 0

for iInRow in inputRows:
    inGeom = iInRow.shape
    iCounter+=1
    iCounter2+=1    
    if (iCounter2 > (OnePercentThreshold+0)):
          #printit("Processing Record "+str(iCounter) + " of "+ str(numRecords))
          iCounter2=0

    if (inGeom.length > alongDist):
          shapeList = splitShape(iInRow.shape,alongDist)

          for itmp in shapeList:
                newRow = outputRows.newRow()
                for ifield in fields:
                    if (ifield.editable):
                          newRow.setValue(ifield.name,iInRow.getValue(ifield.name))
                newRow.shape = itmp
                outputRows.insertRow(newRow)
    else:
          outputRows.insertRow(iInRow)

del inputRows
del outputRows

#printit("Done!")

###END SPLIT LINE CODE IN A SAME DISTANCE###
Create "General" file geodatabase
WorkFolder=env.workspace
General_GDB=WorkFolder+"\General.gdb"
arcpy.CreateFileGDB_management(WorkFolder, "General", "CURRENT")
env.workspace=General_GDB
#Unsplit Line
LineDissolve="LineDissolve"
arcpy.Dissolve_management (Lines, LineDissolve,"", "", "SINGLE_PART")
LineSplit="LineSplit"
#Split Line
if SplitType=="Split at approximate distance":
    splitline(LineDissolve, LineSplit, DistanceSplit)
else:
    arcpy.SplitLine_management (LineDissolve, LineSplit)
#Add fields to LineSplit
FieldsNames=["LineID", "Direction", "Azimuth", "X_mid", "Y_mid", "AziLine_1", "AziLine_2", "Distance"]
for fn in FieldsNames:
    arcpy.AddField_management (LineSplit, fn, "DOUBLE")
#Calculate Fields
CodeBlock_Direction="""def GetAzimuthPolyline(shape):
 radian = math.atan((shape.lastpoint.x - shape.firstpoint.x)/(shape.lastpoint.y - shape.firstpoint.y))
 degrees = radian * 180 / math.pi
 return degrees"""
CodeBlock_Azimuth="""def Azimuth(direction):
 if direction < 0:
  azimuth = direction + 360
  return azimuth
 else:
  return direction"""
CodeBlock_NULLS="""def findNulls(fieldValue):
    if fieldValue is None:
        return 0
    elif fieldValue is not None:
        return fieldValue"""
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "LineID", "!OBJECTID!", "PYTHON_9.3")
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "Direction", "GetAzimuthPolyline(!Shape!)", "PYTHON_9.3", CodeBlock_Direction)
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "Direction", "findNulls(!Direction!)", "PYTHON_9.3", CodeBlock_NULLS)
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "Azimuth", "Azimuth(!Direction!)", "PYTHON_9.3", CodeBlock_Azimuth)
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "X_mid", "!Shape!.positionAlongLine(0.5,True).firstPoint.X", "PYTHON_9.3")
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "Y_mid", "!Shape!.positionAlongLine(0.5,True).firstPoint.Y", "PYTHON_9.3")
CodeBlock_AziLine1="""def Azline1(azimuth):
 az1 = azimuth + 90
 if az1 > 360:
  az1-=360
  return az1
 else:
  return az1"""
CodeBlock_AziLine2="""def Azline2(azimuth):
 az2 = azimuth - 90
 if az2 < 0:
  az2+=360
  return az2
 else:
  return az2"""
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "AziLine_1", "Azline1(!Azimuth!)", "PYTHON_9.3", CodeBlock_AziLine1)
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "AziLine_2", "Azline2(!Azimuth!)", "PYTHON_9.3", CodeBlock_AziLine2) 
arcpy.CalculateField_management (LineSplit, "Distance", TransecLength, "PYTHON_9.3")
#Generate Azline1 and Azline2
spatial_reference=arcpy.Describe(Lines).spatialReference
Azline1="Azline1"
Azline2="Azline2"
arcpy.BearingDistanceToLine_management (LineSplit, Azline1, "X_mid", "Y_mid", "Distance", TransecLength_Unit, "AziLine_1", "DEGREES", "GEODESIC", "LineID", spatial_reference)
arcpy.BearingDistanceToLine_management (LineSplit, Azline2, "X_mid", "Y_mid", "Distance", TransecLength_Unit, "AziLine_2", "DEGREES", "GEODESIC", "LineID", spatial_reference)
#Create Azline and append Azline1 and Azline2
Azline="Azline"
arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management(env.workspace, "Azline", "POLYLINE", "", "", "", spatial_reference)
arcpy.AddField_management (Azline, "LineID", "DOUBLE")
arcpy.Append_management ([Azline1, Azline2], Azline, "NO_TEST")
#Dissolve Azline
Azline_Dissolve="Azline_Dissolve"
arcpy.Dissolve_management (Azline, Azline_Dissolve,"LineID", "", "SINGLE_PART")
#Add Fields to Azline_Dissolve
FieldsNames2=["x_start", "y_start", "x_end", "y_end"]
for fn2 in FieldsNames2:
    arcpy.AddField_management (Azline_Dissolve, fn2, "DOUBLE")
#Calculate Azline_Dissolve fields
arcpy.CalculateField_management (Azline_Dissolve, "x_start", "!Shape!.positionAlongLine(0,True).firstPoint.X", "PYTHON_9.3") 
arcpy.CalculateField_management (Azline_Dissolve, "y_start", "!Shape!.positionAlongLine(0,True).firstPoint.Y", "PYTHON_9.3")
arcpy.CalculateField_management (Azline_Dissolve, "x_end", "!Shape!.positionAlongLine(1,True).firstPoint.X", "PYTHON_9.3")
arcpy.CalculateField_management (Azline_Dissolve, "y_end", "!Shape!.positionAlongLine(1,True).firstPoint.Y", "PYTHON_9.3")
#Generate output file
arcpy.XYToLine_management (Azline_Dissolve, OutputTransect,"x_start", "y_start", "x_end","y_end", "", "", spatial_reference)
#Delete General.gdb
arcpy.Delete_management(General_GDB)

Answer 2

I found code courtesy of Gerry Gabrisch posted on an old ArcGIS 9.2 forum (http://arcscripts.esri.com/details.asp?dbid=15756) and modified it so that it works in ArcGIS 10. The original output was a text file with coordinates, and this version writes geometry to an empty shapefile. Assume "inLine" is your input line feature. All that needs to be done once this code is run is to call the function "buildTransects". The code works pretty well, but all perpendicular lines in the output do not have the same length. Perhaps needs a bit more tweaking, but the lengths match up just enough for the least discriminatory user =D

# Create empty polyline for transects
spatialref = arcpy.Describe(inLine).spatialReference
if arcpy.Exists('transects'): 
    arcpy.Delete_management('transects')
transects = arcpy.CreateFeatureclass_management(temp,'transects.shp',"POLYLINE",'','','',spatialref)
arcpy.AddField_management(transects, "slope", "DOUBLE")
inLine = input line, transects = new shapefile created above,
transDist = length of transect (approximate), workspace = workspace
def buildTransects(inLine,transects,transDist,workspace):
# Define orientation (start, mid, end) and draw transect function
# This function is defined before it is called
def orientTransect(feat,ix,iy):

        # If the line is horizontal or vertical, the slope and
        # negative reciprocal calculations will fail, so do this instead
        if starty==endy or startx==endx:
            if starty == endy:
                y1 = iy + transDist
                y2 = iy - transDist
                x1 = ix
                x2 = ix

            if startx == endx:
                y1 = iy
                y2 = iy
                x1 = ix + transDist
                x2 = ix - transDist


        else:

            # Get slope of line
            m = ((starty - endy)/(startx - endx))

            # Get negative reciprocal
            negativereciprocal = -1*((startx - endx)/(starty - endy))

            # For all values of slope, calculate perpendicular line
            # with length = transDist
            if m > 0:
                if m >= 1:
                    y1 = negativereciprocal*(transDist)+ iy
                    y2 = negativereciprocal*(-transDist) + iy
                    x1 = ix + transDist
                    x2 = ix - transDist
                if m < 1:
                    y1 = iy + transDist
                    y2 = iy - transDist
                    x1 = (transDist/negativereciprocal) + ix
                    x2 = (-transDist/negativereciprocal)+ ix

            if m < 0:
                if m >= -1:
                    y1 = iy + transDist
                    y2 = iy - transDist
                    x1 = (transDist/negativereciprocal) + ix
                    x2 = (-transDist/negativereciprocal)+ ix

                if m < -1:
                    y1 = negativereciprocal*(transDist)+ iy
                    y2 = negativereciprocal*(-transDist) + iy
                    x1 = ix + transDist
                    x2 = ix - transDist
        point1.X = x1
        point1.Y = y1
        point2.X = x2
        point2.Y = y2
        lineArray.add(point1)
        lineArray.add(point2)

        del x1
        del x2
        del y1
        del y2

# Create search cursor in inLine
rows = arcpy.SearchCursor(inLine)

# Get number of records in inLine
numRecords = int(arcpy.GetCount_management(inLine).getOutput(0))


# Create new point files and array to collect values
point1 = arcpy.Point()
point2 = arcpy.Point()
lineArray = arcpy.Array()

# Define counter
counter = 0

# Loop over rows in outLine
for row in rows:

    # Create the geometry object
    feat = row.Shape

    # Get coordinate values as lists
    firstpoint = feat.firstPoint
    lastpoint = feat.lastPoint
    midpoint = feat.centroid

    # Get X and Y values for each point
    startx = firstpoint.X
    starty = firstpoint.Y
    endx = lastpoint.X
    endy = lastpoint.Y
    midx = midpoint.X
    midy = midpoint.Y

    m = ((starty - endy)/(startx - endx))

    # For all points besides the last one
    if counter < numRecords - 1:
        orientTransect(feat,startx,starty)
    # For the last point
    else:
        orientTransect(feat,endx,endy)

    #Create insert cursor
    cur = arcpy.InsertCursor(transects)

    #Insert new row from array
    feat = cur.newRow()
    feat.slope = m
    feat.shape = lineArray
    cur.insertRow(feat)
    lineArray.removeAll()

    del cur

    # Increase counter by 1 and start again
    counter = counter + 1

del row
del rows

printit('Added %s transects to inLine and saved to temp/transects.shp' % str(counter))

Answer 3

Here’s what I did a while ago:

1. Using the linear referenced river centerlines, added hatches every one-mile (you can choose the interval). Made the hatches 2 miles wide. (you can choose the width)
2. Converted hatches to graphic lines (draw toolbar)
3. Converted graphic lines into a line feature class.
4. Assigned route ID and measure back to the feature class using “Locate features along Routes”.
5. The resultant lines were perpendicular to the river line, not necessary the general floodplain. Rotated several cross sections to conform to the floodplain trends. This was done on more than one occasion. From here I was able to extract elevations from the DEM and then find min, max, etc.

Answer 4

we had to do something similar and found you can manually do it. It is tedious, but by creating a random point on the line and then adding equal interval points from that origin, you have equal interval points. Then snap to each point and draw a perpendicular line from your stream line or thalweg line, which you have to do individually in each direction (right and left). You can then merge those perpendicular lines and use them as transects, or convert to points. There are two toolsets which may be useful, one is called ET GeoWizards which requires a license, but has tools which do pretty much exactly what you need. The other option is a freely available tool set, called "Geospatial Modelling Environment" (used to be Hawths' tools). See the vector tools "generate random points" and "convert lines to points". It is a tedious task.

Answer 5

If anyone wants to do this with r, I found a script written by Barry Rowlingson on R-sig-geo that still works fairly well.

Two functions: one computes evenly spaced points along a set of xy coordinates, the other works out the end point of transects centered on those points:

# How to generate perpendicular transects along a line feature 

evenspace <- function(xy, sep, start = 0, size) {
  dx <- c(0, diff(xy[, 1]))
  dy <- c(0, diff(xy[, 2]))
  dseg <- sqrt(dx^2 + dy^2)
  dtotal <- cumsum(dseg)

  linelength <- sum(dseg)

  pos <- seq(start, linelength, by = sep)

  whichseg <- unlist(lapply(pos, function(x) {
    sum(dtotal <= x)
  }))

  pos <- data.frame(
    pos = pos, whichseg = whichseg,
    x0 = xy[whichseg, 1],
    y0 = xy[whichseg, 2],
    dseg = dseg[whichseg + 1],
    dtotal = dtotal[whichseg],
    x1 = xy[whichseg + 1, 1],
    y1 = xy[whichseg + 1, 2]
  )

  pos$further <- pos$pos - pos$dtotal
  pos$f <- pos$further / pos$dseg
  pos$x <- pos$x0 + pos$f * (pos$x1 - pos$x0)
  pos$y <- pos$y0 + pos$f * (pos$y1 - pos$y0)

  pos$theta <- atan2(pos$y0 - pos$y1, pos$x0 - pos$x1)

  return(pos[, c("x", "y", "x0", "y0", "x1", "y1", "theta")])
}

transect <- function(tpts, tlen) {
  tpts$thetaT <- tpts$theta + pi / 2
  dx <- tlen * cos(tpts$thetaT)
  dy <- tlen * sin(tpts$thetaT)
  return(
    data.frame(
      x0 = tpts$x + dx,
      y0 = tpts$y + dy,
      x1 = tpts$x - dx,
      y1 = tpts$y - dy
    )
  )
}

Example:

# 1. make a meandering stream:
stream <- data.frame(x = seq(0, 20, len = 50))
stream$y <- sin(stream$x / 3)
head(stream)
#>           x         y
#> 1 0.0000000 0.0000000
#> 2 0.4081633 0.1356351
#> 3 0.8163265 0.2687633
#> 4 1.2244898 0.3969241
#> 5 1.6326531 0.5177490
#> 6 2.0408163 0.6290046

# 2. plot it - note asp = 1 is essential:
plot(stream, type = "l", asp = 1, lwd = 2, col = 'blue')

# 3. compute evenly spaced (1.5 units) transect centres:
tspts <- evenspace(stream, 1.5)
head(tspts)
#>          x         y       x0        y0        x1        y1     theta
#> 1 0.000000 0.0000000 0.000000 0.0000000 0.4081633 0.1356351 -2.820767
#> 2 1.428493 0.4573134 1.224490 0.3969241 1.6326531 0.5177490 -2.853791
#> 3 2.883469 0.8193843 2.857143 0.8147982 3.2653061 0.8859022 -2.969119
#> 4 4.372037 0.9916890 4.081633 0.9779783 4.4897959 0.9972486 -3.094415
#> 5 5.868659 0.9246324 5.714286 0.9447499 6.1224490 0.8915592  3.012006
#> 6 7.340358 0.6401380 6.938776 0.7370314 7.3469388 0.6385503  2.904839
points(tspts, pch = "X")

# 4. compute perpendicular transects of length 2 units:
tslines <- transect(tspts, 2)
head(tslines)
#>          x0        y0         x1       y1
#> 1 0.6307003 -1.897951 -0.6307003 1.897951
#> 2 1.9961840 -1.460427  0.8608022 2.375053
#> 3 3.2267096 -1.150942  2.5402285 2.789711
#> 4 4.4663564 -1.006086  4.2777177 2.989464
#> 5 5.6102103 -1.058598  6.1271081 2.907863
#> 6 6.8712621 -1.304071  7.8094546 2.584347
segments(tslines$x0, tslines$y0, tslines$x1, tslines$y1, col = 'red')

Extra: convert to long format so it's easy to import into ArcGIS

library(dplyr)
library(tidyr)
tslines_long <- tslines %>%
  tbl_df() %>%
  mutate(id = row_number()) %>%
  select(id, everything()) %>% 
  pivot_longer(c(x0:y1),
               names_to = c(".value", "set"),
               names_pattern = "(.)(.)"
  )
tslines_long
#> # A tibble: 28 x 4
#>       id set        x     y
#>    <int> <chr>  <dbl> <dbl>
#>  1     1 0      0.631 -1.90
#>  2     1 1     -0.631  1.90
#>  3     2 0      2.00  -1.46
#>  4     2 1      0.861  2.38
#>  5     3 0      3.23  -1.15
#>  6     3 1      2.54   2.79
#>  7     4 0      4.47  -1.01
#>  8     4 1      4.28   2.99
#>  9     5 0      5.61  -1.06
#> 10     5 1      6.13   2.91
#> # … with 18 more rows