Knickzone Extraction Tool
A brief tutorial
26th February 26, 2016

Tutorial for the use of Knickzone Extraction Tool (KET)This tool was created to identify knickzones along the longitudinal river profile using user specified
constraints. It also calculates the, height and length of the kniczones.
References:••

Hayakawa, Y.S., Oguchi, T., 2009: GIS analysis of fluvial
knickzone distribution in Japanese mountain watersheds.
Geomorphology 111, 27–37.
Hayakawa, Y.S., Oguchi, T., 2006: DEM-based
identification of fluvial knickzones and its application toJapanese mountain rivers. Geomorphology 78, 90–106.

Requirements:• Installation of the TauDEM.
• ArcGIS (10 or higher) with license to Spatial Analyst.
Installation instructions
TauDEM 5.1.1 (For ArcGIS 10, 10.1, and 10.2)
1. Click the link below to go to the Utah State University’s TauDEM download link
TauDEM 5.1.1 Self extracting zip file install package(http://hydrology.usu.edu/taudem/taudem5/taudem511exe.html)
2. Fill in the details or just leave it blank and click Download to download
TauDEM511.exe

Page 2 of 83. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the setup of TauDEM511.exe. Theinstaller will install following four packages:

4. To activate the TauDEM Toolbox in ArcGIS (not required for KET):a) Open ArcMap. If the ArcToolbox Window is not open, click on the "Show/HideArcToolbox Window" icon in the Standard Toolbar.
b) Right click on ArcToolbox at the top of the window. Select Add Toolbox... .
c) Browse to the TauDEM install directory (C:\Program
Files\TauDEM\TauDEM5Arc\).
d) Click on the TauDEM_Tools.tbx file, and click Open.
e) The TauDEM Toolbox should now be visible in the list of toolboxes.
f)

If you wish to save this configuration, right click on ArcToolbox, select Save toDefault.

5. A system restart might be required before you start using the tool.
The installation of TauDEM 5.0, compatible for ArcGIS 9.3 is still the same complicated step.
Details are given at http://hydrology.usu.edu/taudem/taudem5/downloads5.0.html
Importing the tool into ArcToolbox:
1. Right click the ArcToolbox and click add Toolbox

2. Browse to the KET downloaded from website and select KET.tbx to open.
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3. Once added, the KET will show up in the list of toolboxes with two tools inside the toolbox:
a. Calculation of relative steepness
b. Extraction of knickzones

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Calculation of relative steepness
Included as the first part of KET, this tool uses an uncompressed DEM in TIFF format to calculate
relative steepness of the supplied topography at multiple scales. The tool needs input for the scale.
Input of “From value” and “To value”, correspond to the first, the last scale of computation. “Byvalue” determines the incremental scale for multiple scales in between the first and last scales. For
details, please check the references.

Tool help:
Output workspace : The folder where the files during the processing and output 'FinalRaster' will
be placed.
DEM (Must be a TIF) : A DEM representative of the topography. The supplied DEM must be an
uncompressed TIFF file.
From Value : The starting d value.
To Value : The final d value.
By Value : The value by which the d is increased from 'From distance' to 'To distance'. (Stepvalue)
Output:Finalraster.tif (the relative steepness raster) placed in the output workspace.

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Change variables as required, supplied here for demonstration of KET (part1).
Upon execution, the tool will start open a command window for computation using TauDEM and start
populating the working directory at the same time. The progress will be displayed in a tool window in
ArcGIS and this will several minutes. Be patient. The output of relative steepness will be a
“Finalraster.tif” placed in the output folder.

Page 6 of 8Extraction of knickzonesIncluded as the second part of KET, this tool uses the relative steepness raster (Finalraster.tif)
computed previously to extract fluvial knickzones along the longitudinal river profile using
some user input. It also calculates the, height and length of the knickzones. The final output"Knickzones" contains these information as attributes. A separate text file with the attributes"Zonal_.csv" will also be a part of the output in the workspace.

Tool help:

Workspace : The workspace that will be used for the analysis
Input DEM : The input raster representing a continuous surface.
Relative steepness raster : The relative steepness raster. (Output of the part1 of the KET:
"Calculation of relative steepness" )Knickzone threshold : The value of gradient decrease Rd , below which the areas will bemarked as knickzones.
Knickzone length threshold : The minimum length (in meters) of knickzones to beconsidered for analyses. This filters smaller artifacts.
Flow accumulation threshold (optional) : Number of cells draining into a cell along thestream network. Use larger values for sparse drainage networks and smaller values for
denser stream networks. (If pre-calculated stream is provided, the tool will skip thestream generation)
Stream network (optional) : Supply, if previously calculated. Supplying a pre-determinedstream network will skip the steps for stream calculation and considerably lessen thePage 7 of 8

calculation time. If not specified, a stream network file will be placed in the working
directory in the first run for the supplied flow accumulation value.
Knickzones : The output knickzones.
OutputThe knickzones as shapefile along with their length and height information as attributes. A
separate text file with the attributes "Zonal_.csv" will also be a part of the output in theworkspacePart of an
unpublished work

In the attribute table and the table generated, the length refers to the estimated length ofknickzones while the range refers to the height of the knickzones.

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