LSDTopoTools_ChiMudd2014: A C++ repository from Land Surface Dynamics Topographic Tools (LSDTopoTools) - Land Surface Dynamics Topographic Tools (LSDTopoTools)

LSDTopoTools Chi Tools

These are tools to perform integral analysis of channel profiles (often called "chi profiles") to understand the relative steepness of channels normalised by drainage area. This has a number of applications including looking for tectonic, climatic, and lithologic controls on river profiles.

This folder contains source code for the Chi analysis tools described in Mudd et al. (2014). It also contains source code for mapping the chi coordinate and channel steepness for entire landscapes.

It also contains algorithms for calculating the concavity index of a landscape described in Mudd et al. (2018, ESURF).

Important

Unless you are trying to reproduce the analysis in Mudd et al. (2014), you should skip to the new chi mapping tool, which is newer, faster, more powerful, and has many more features.

The chi mapping tool

Documentation for the chi mapping tool can be found here: https://lsdtopotools.github.io/LSDTT_documentation/LSDTT_chi_analysis.html

Quick guide

This assumes:

You have a linux operating system.
- If you do not have a linux system see our documentation on setting up LSDTopoTools. With these documents you will be able to run these tools in any operating system.
- Alternatively you can use either docker for windows or docker for MacOS: see instructions here: https://hub.docker.com/r/afriel/lsdtopotools/ These tools only work on windows if you have Windows 10 enterprise.
  1. You need a directory in your linux system called LSDTopoTools.
  2. Into that directory downloar our script LSDTopoToolsSetup.py. You can download directly with:
    
    $ wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/LSDtopotools/LSDAutomation/master/LSDTopoToolsSetup.py
  3. Run the setup tool
    
    $ python LSDTopoToolsSetup.py -id 1 -ChiM True
  4. This will download and compile the program in the directory ./Git_projects/LSDTopoTools_ChiMudd2014/driver_functions_MuddChi2014/. The program will be called chi_mapping_tool.exe.
  5. For use, read the documentation.

Plotting the data

See the documentation for both the chi tools and for generalised visualisation to get started plotting the outputs from this software.

Our plotting tools live in the LSDMappingTools repository.

The chi tools from Mudd et al 2014 (these are the old versions)

Important

If you are new to our software and want to get started with the minimum amount of bother, you should read our documentation on setting up LSDTopoTools.

This code is part of the LSDTopoTools software package.

The versions here are updated on a semi regular basis.

For instructions, go to the LSDTopoTools documentation website.

Instructions specific to this package are in the chapter on chi analysis If you want to map and entire landscape (either for chi or chi steepness) the instructions are here. If you want to calculate the channel steepness index you can run this code and set the A_0 parameter to 1.

Quick Guide to old (2014) version (FOR LEGACY ONLY: DON’T USE THIS)

If you are already familiar with this software, here as a quick reminder:

Clone this repository (or, if you have already cloned it, pull any updates).
Navigate into the driver_functions_MuddChi2014 folder.

Compile the code using make:

$ make -f chi_step1_write_junctions.make
$ make -f chi_step2_write_channel_file.make
$ make -f chi_get_profiles.make
$ make -f chi_m_over_n_analysis.make

Put your data and the parameter file (see the section on steps for chi analysis) into an appropriate folder.
Use ./chi1_write_junctions.exe to find the junctions and ./chi2_write_channel_file.exe
You can perform m/n analysis or just get chi profiles using the other programs.
Questions? Read the documentation, and if you can’t find the answer email Simon.