Landlab is an open-source Python-language package for numerical modeling of Earth surface dynamics. It contains
- A gridding engine which represents the model domain. Regular and irregular grids are supported.
- A library of process components, each of which represents a physical process (e.g., generation of rain, erosion by flowing water). These components have a common interface and can be combined based on a user's needs.
- Utilities that support general numerical methods, file input/output, and visualization.
In addition Landlab contains a set of Jupyter notebook tutorials providing an introduction to core concepts and examples of use.
Landlab was designed for disciplines that quantify Earth surface dynamics such as geomorphology, hydrology, glaciology, and stratigraphy. It can also be used in related fields. Scientists who use this type of model often build their own unique model from the ground up, re-coding the basic building blocks of their landscape model rather than taking advantage of codes that have already been written. Landlab saves practitioners from the need for this kind of re-invention by providing standardized components that they can re-use.
Watch the webinar Landlab Toolkit Overview at CSDMS to learn more.
Read the documentation on ReadTheDocs!
In order to use landlab you will first need Python. While not necessary, we recommend using the Anaconda Python distribution as it provides a large number of third-party packages useful for scientific computing.
To install landlab, simply run the following in your terminal of choice:
.. tab:: mamba
.. code-block:: bash
$ conda install mamba -c conda-forge
$ mamba install landlab -c conda-forge
.. tab:: conda
.. code-block:: bash
$ conda install landlab -c conda-forge
.. tab:: pip
.. code-block:: bash
$ pip install landlab
landlab is actively being developed on GitHub, where the code is freely available. If you would like to modify or contribute code, you can either clone our repository
$ git clone git://github.com/landlab/landlab.gitor download the tarball (a zip file is available for Windows users):
$ curl -OL https://github.com/landlab/landlab/tarball/masterOnce you have a copy of the source code, you can install it into your current Python environment,
.. tab:: conda
.. code-block:: bash
$ cd landlab
$ conda install --file=requirements.txt
$ pip install -e .
.. tab:: pip
.. code-block:: bash
$ cd landlab
$ pip install -e .
The Landlab package contains a directory, landlab/notebooks, with
Jupyter Notebooks describing core concepts and giving examples of using components.
The file landlab/notebooks/welcome.ipynb provides a table of contents to
the notebooks and is the recommended starting place.
Additionally, there are a set of notebooks curated to teach physical processes
located in the directory landlab/notebooks/teaching.
To launch an instance of Binder and explore the notebooks click here.
To launch a Binder instance that goes straight to the teaching notebooks click here.
The Landlab notebooks can also be run on the CSDMS JupyterHub. To sign up for a free account, visit the CSDMS wiki and follow the instructions there. Then, click to explore the example notebooks, or to go straight to the teaching notebooks.
landlab is licensed under the MIT License.
If you use any portion of Landlab, please cite the following papers:
.. tab:: APA `Hobley, D. E. J. <https://www.earth-surf-dynam.net/5/21/2017/>`__, Adams, J. M., Nudurupati, S. S., Hutton, E. W. H., Gasparini, N. M., Istanbulluoglu, E. and Tucker, G. E., 2017, Creative computing with Landlab: an open-source toolkit for building, coupling, and exploring two-dimensional numerical models of Earth-surface dynamics, Earth Surface Dynamics, 5(1), p 21-46, 10.5194/esurf-5-21-2017. `Barnhart, K. R. <https://doi.org/10.5194/esurf-8-379-2020>`__, Hutton, E. W. H., Tucker, G. E., Gasparini, N. M., Istanbulluoglu, E., Hobley, D. E. J., Lyons, N. J., Mouchene, M., Nudurupati, S. S., Adams, J. M., and Bandaragoda, C., 2020, Short communication: Landlab v2.0: A software package for Earth surface dynamics, Earth Surf. Dynam., 8(2), p 379-397, doi:10.5194/esurf-8-379-2020. Hutton, E., Barnhart, K., Hobley, D., Tucker, G., Nudurupati, S., Adams, J., Gasparini, N., Shobe, C., Strauch, R., Knuth, J., Mouchene, M., Lyons, N., Litwin, D., Glade, R., Giuseppecipolla95, Manaster, A., Abby, L., Thyng, K., & Rengers, F. (2020). landlab [Computer software]. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.595872
.. tab:: BibTeX
::
@article{hobley2017creative,
title={
Creative computing with Landlab: an open-source toolkit for building,
coupling, and exploring two-dimensional numerical models of
Earth-surface dynamics
},
author={
Hobley, Daniel EJ and Adams, Jordan M and Nudurupati, Sai Siddhartha and
Hutton, Eric WH and Gasparini, Nicole M and Istanbulluoglu, Erkan and
Tucker, Gregory E
},
journal={Earth Surface Dynamics},
volume={5},
number={1},
pages={21--46},
year={2017},
publisher={Copernicus GmbH},
url={https://esurf.copernicus.org/articles/5/21/2017/},
doi={10.5194/esurf-5-21-2017}
}
@article{barnhart2020landlab,
title={Landlab v2. 0: a software package for Earth surface dynamics},
author={
Barnhart, Katherine R and Hutton, Eric WH and Tucker, Gregory E and
Gasparini, Nicole M and Istanbulluoglu, Erkan and Hobley, Daniel EJ and
Lyons, Nathan J and Mouchene, Margaux and Nudurupati, Sai Siddhartha and
Adams, Jordan M and others
},
journal={Earth Surface Dynamics},
volume={8},
number={2},
pages={379--397},
year={2020},
publisher={Copernicus GmbH}
url = {https://esurf.copernicus.org/articles/8/379/2020/},
doi = {10.5194/esurf-8-379-2020}
}
@software{Hutton_landlab_2020,
author = {Hutton, Eric and Barnhart, Katy and Hobley, Dan and Tucker, Greg and Nudurupati, Sai and Adams, Jordan and Gasparini, Nicole and Shobe, Charlie and Strauch, Ronda and Knuth, Jenny and Mouchene, Margaux and Lyons, Nathan and Litwin, David and Glade, Rachel and {Giuseppecipolla95} and Manaster, Amanda and Abby, Langston and Thyng, Kristen and Rengers, Francis},
doi = {10.5281/zenodo.595872},
license = {MIT},
month = {4},
title = {{landlab}},
url = {https://github.com/landlab/landlab},
year = {2020}
}
If you are working with Landlab components and utilities, many of them have their own publication. Please cite it to acknowledge the component authors.
Citation information for each component can be found as follows:
- Where relevant, software citation and general references, are listed in the Component API documentation under the References section.
- Software citations are included in component metadata. We have created a tool called the "Citation Registry" which creates a .bib file for software citations used in an application. See example usage :ref:`here <cite_as>`.
The recommended way to contact the Landlab team is with a GitHub Issue.
- Bug reports: Please make an Issue describing the bug so we can address it, or work with you to address it. Please try to provide a minimal, reproducible example.
- Documentation: If something in our documentation is not clear to you, please make an issue describing the what isn't clear. Someone will tag the most appropriate member of the core Landlab team. We will work to clarify your question and revise the documentation so that it is clear for the next user.
Keep in touch with the latest landlab news by following us on Twitter.
During workshops and clinics, we sometimes use the Landlab Slack channel.