Skip to content

r.object.thickness

Evaluates minimum, maximum and mean thickness of objects of a given category on a raster map.

r.object.thickness input=name category=integer tsize=float tspace=float resolutiondir=string [rmedian=name] [vmedian=name] [transects=name] [itransects=name] [csvfilename=name] [--overwrite] [--verbose] [--quiet] [--qq] [--ui]

Example:

r.object.thickness input=name category=integer tsize=100 tspace=2 resolutiondir=N-S

grass.script.run_command("r.object.thickness", input, category, tsize=100, tspace=2, resolutiondir="N-S", rmedian=None, vmedian=None, transects=None, itransects=None, csvfilename=None, overwrite=False, verbose=False, quiet=False, superquiet=False)

Example:

gs.run_command("r.object.thickness", input="name", category=integer, tsize=100, tspace=2, resolutiondir="N-S")

Parameters

input=name [required]
    Name of input raster map
category=integer [required]
    Category to evaluate
tsize=float [required]
    Expected maximum size in map units
    Default: 100
tspace=float [required]
    Transect spacing in map units
    Default: 2
resolutiondir=string [required]
    Resolution for output in pixels
    Allowed values: N-S, E-W
    Default: N-S
rmedian=name
    Raster map of median lines
vmedian=name
    Vector map of median lines
transects=name
    Vector map of complete transects
itransects=name
    Vector map of inner transects
csvfilename=name
    CSV output file
--overwrite
    Allow output files to overwrite existing files
--help
    Print usage summary
--verbose
    Verbose module output
--quiet
    Quiet module output
--qq
    Very quiet module output
--ui
    Force launching GUI dialog

input : str, required
    Name of input raster map
    Used as: input, raster, name
category : int, required
    Category to evaluate
tsize : float, required
    Expected maximum size in map units
    Default: 100
tspace : float, required
    Transect spacing in map units
    Default: 2
resolutiondir : str, required
    Resolution for output in pixels
    Allowed values: N-S, E-W
    Default: N-S
rmedian : str, optional
    Raster map of median lines
    Used as: output, raster, name
vmedian : str, optional
    Vector map of median lines
    Used as: output, vector, name
transects : str, optional
    Vector map of complete transects
    Used as: output, vector, name
itransects : str, optional
    Vector map of inner transects
    Used as: output, vector, name
csvfilename : str, optional
    CSV output file
    Used as: output, file, name
overwrite: bool, optional
    Allow output files to overwrite existing files
    Default: False
verbose: bool, optional
    Verbose module output
    Default: False
quiet: bool, optional
    Quiet module output
    Default: False
superquiet: bool, optional
    Very quiet module output
    Default: False

DESCRIPTION

r.object.thickness evaluates minimum, maximum and mean thickness of objects of a given category on a raster map.

The thickness is reported both in map units and pixels. The module is primarly used to estimate the neighborhood window size for filters, such as those used by r.neighbors and r.fill.category.

Object thickness is evaluated by creating transects along the median lines of the raster objects, clipping them with object themselves and evaluating their lengths.

Optionally, r.object.thickness can save a CSV file containing the complete list of the lenghts of the parts of all created transects inside the objects. It is possible to save a maps containing the median lines of the objects, in both raster and vector format, a vector map containing the transects and a vector map containing the clipped transects.

The v.transects addon must be installed to run this module.

PARAMETERS

The user indicates the category of the objects whose thickness must be evaluated, and indicating the expected maximum lentgth of the transects and their spacing.

The expected maximum lentgth of the transects is used to create the transects before clipping them with the raster objects. It must be chosen large enough to contain the longer cross secton of the biggest object. The module issues a warning if the maximum evaluated thickness is less than or equal to the expected maximum: in this case at least one transect has not been clipped because it does not intersect the object boundary. Therefore the expected maximum size parameter must be raised.

Transects spacing controls the distance between transects along the median line. It must be chosen so that at least one transect is created on each median line. Smaller values can provide slightly more accurate results but require more processing time. As a rule of thumb, a good starting point is setting transects spacing abount 1/50 of the expected maximum size, but the minimum value can change. If the the transects spacing value is too low no transect is created and no thickness can be evaluated: in this case the module issues an error and stops.

It is possibile to choose the direction (N-S or E-W) of the region resolution used to convert the estimated lenghts in pixels. The choiche is irrelevant for regions with square cells.

Optional maps containing the median lines of the objects, in both raster and vector format, the vector map containing the transects and the vector map containing the clipped transects are created only if a name is provided for them. In the same way, a CSV file containing the complete list of the lenghts of the parts of all created transects inside the objects is also created only if a file name is given.

EXAMPLE

In this example, the thickness of the water bodies in the landuse map in the North Carolina sample dataset location is evaluated:

# set the region on the landuse map
g.region rast=landuse@PERMANENT
# evaluate the thickness of water bodies (categoy 6) in the landuse map
# create a vector map containing the median lines called median
# create a vector map containing the transects inside the water bodies called transects_in
r.object.thickness input=landuse@PERMANENT category=6 tsize=4000 tspace=100 vmedian=median itransects=transects_in

outputs

Thickness in map units: min 1.525433  max 2962.446155  mean 301.059197
Thickness in pixels: min 0.053524  max 103.945479  mean 10.563481

SEE ALSO

r.neighbors, r.reclass.area, v.transects,

AUTHOR

Paolo Zatelli, DICAM, University of Trento, Italy.

SOURCE CODE

Available at: r.object.thickness source code (history)
Latest change: Thursday Mar 20 21:36:57 2025 in commit 7286ecf