Terrain

Every terrain analysis, on the Ngong Hills

A ridge of old volcanic summits southwest of Nairobi that drops west into the Great Rift Valley: about 28 by 22 km of steep slopes, ravines, high ground and the plain below. The box the terrain engine was verified on, live from Copernicus, on 2026-10-17.

All 29 terrain analyses the product offers ran here by its own terrain engine on 30 m cells from Copernicus DEM GLO-30 (full resolution): 740 x 930 = 688,200 cells, with the observers, lines of sight, routes, profiles and radio sites the automatic analysis places itself on the dominant heights. Each map was drawn by the render path the runs use, and no model was called. Each analysis has its own page with its map, parameters, numbers and an interactive map of its layers.

619 km2analyzed

30 mcells

1,562 to 2,456 melevation

894 mrelief

5.2 degreesmean slope

29analyses

The whole analysis

Terrain analysis (everything)

tr_terrain_analysis

Every terrain tool in one press, as the Terrain page and a Start run it: the seven terrain maps, the charts, the dominant heights and the findings.

Surface

Aspect

tr_aspect

Compass bearing each slope faces, with the share of ground per sector.

Contours

tr_contours

Contour lines at an interval (chosen from the relief when not given).

Curvature

tr_curvature

Total, profile or plan curvature (Zevenbergen and Thorne), 1/100 m.

Hillshade

tr_hillshade

Shaded relief from a light direction, or multidirectional.

Slope

tr_slope

Horn slope in degrees or percent, with the share of ground in six grade classes.

Landforms

tr_terrain_forms

Geomorphon landforms: flat, peak, ridge, shoulder, spur, slope, hollow, footslope, valley, pit.

Ravines and ridges

tr_ravine_ridge

Ravine lines (drainage of the filled DEM) and ridge lines (the negated DEM), classed with length, catchment, depth or prominence.

Strategic points

tr_strategic_points

Observation points (high ground ranked by what it sees), open flat ground and terrain-masked areas.

Hydrology

Flood-prone ground

tr_flood_prone

Ground close above the drainage: height above the nearest stream (HAND) and the ground within a few meters of it, the first to flood when the streams rise (a terrain screen, not a flood model).

Flow accumulation

tr_flow_accumulation

Depression-filled D8 flow direction and accumulation, with an optional stream network (Strahler order).

Pour points

tr_pour_points

Snap given pour points to the strongest flow nearby, or find candidate outlets or confluences ranked by catchment.

Watershed

tr_watershed

Watersheds draining through pour points (snapped to the strongest flow nearby), or the largest outlet basins when no point is given.

Visibility and profiles

Elevation profile

tr_profile

Elevation along a line: samples, gain and loss, grades and extremes.

Line of sight

tr_line_of_sight

Whether a target is visible from an observer: the first obstruction, the lowest clearance, the ground visible along the line and the clearance profile.

Viewshed

tr_viewshed

What observers see (forward), where a target is seen from (reverse), or how many sampled targets each cell sees (coverage), with earth curvature and refraction.

Mobility

Least-cost path

tr_least_cost_path

The fastest route for a mobility class through start, optional vias and end, with up to three alternates, travel time and an optional least-cost corridor.

MCOO

tr_mcoo

Modified combined obstacle overlay: going classes, obstacles with reasons, mobility corridors with width classes, constrictions, avenues toward an objective, key terrain candidates with reasons and the OAKOC rows.

Mobility

tr_mobility

Going classes (unrestricted, restricted, severely restricted) and off-road speed for a mobility class, obstacle regions, and optional travel time and bands from an origin.

Solar

Solar potential

tr_solar_potential

Clear-sky insolation on slopes and aspects with terrain shading over a date range, sky view factor, solar siting classes and energy per class.

Hazards

Erosion risk

tr_erosion_risk

Soil loss with the RUSLE form (A = R K LS C P) and its LS factor from the flow field.

Landslide susceptibility

tr_landslide_susceptibility

Terrain susceptibility index from slope, wetness, plan concavity and relief, in five classes.

Slope stability

tr_slope_stability

Infinite-slope factor of safety from soil parameters (or slope-class zoning).

Volumes

Cut and fill

tr_volume

Cut and fill volumes between the ground and a reference (plane, lowest, highest, mean, a plane fitted to the boundary, or a second surface) inside a polygon.

Suitability

Buildability

tr_buildability

Weighted buildability score (slope, equator-facing aspect, elevation limits) with the steep and optional wet ground excluded.

Landing zones

tr_landing_zones

Open, gently sloping ground large enough for a landing point of a given diameter, unobserved by the given observers and off flood-prone ground, ranked by size, margin, nearness to an objective and flatness (a map study for reconnaissance).

Mineability

tr_mineability

Terrain mineability score (slope, elevation limits, aspect) in five classes.

Site suitability

tr_site_suitability

Weighted overlay of named terrain criteria (or a preset: site, buildability, mineability, solar) with constraints; distance criteria may use the caller's own layers.

Communications

Comms coverage

tr_comms_coverage

RF coverage from transmitter sites: received power with free-space loss and knife-edge diffraction, line of sight with 60% Fresnel clearance, best server, coverage and dead zones.

Suite

Terrain suite

tr_terrain_suite

The standard set in one call: slope, aspect, hillshade, curvature, ruggedness, TPI, landforms, flow accumulation and streams, ravines and ridges, contours.

Elevation: Copernicus DEM GLO-30, (c) DLR e.V. 2010-2014 and (c) Airbus Defence and Space GmbH 2014-2018, provided under COPERNICUS by the European Union and ESA.

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