Workflow Narrative

Soil Landscape Classification

Problem It Solves

Which terrain-defined landform units dominate the area, and how can they guide management zoning or sampling strategy?

Who It Is For

Geomorphometry analysts, soil-landscape researchers, and precision-ag planning teams.

Primary User

Agronomy/land capability groups, environmental consulting teams, and land resource agencies.

What It Does

Classifies landform units using multiscale curvature and slope signatures.
Produces raster class maps and optional polygon outputs.
Emits summary distributions for each landform class.

How It Works

Computes slope, profile curvature, and plan curvature at fine and coarse scales.
Applies rule-based landform assignment thresholds to each pixel.
Optionally polygonizes class regions and aggregates class-area summary statistics.
Indicative formula: landform_class = rule(slope, k_profile, k_plan, multiscale_signature).

Why It Wins

Couples interpretable geomorphometric classes with optional polygon outputs for direct planning integration.

Typical Buying Trigger

A land management or agronomy program needs terrain-driven zones for sampling design or variable-rate planning.

Typical Presets

default thresholds for general terrain partitioning.
tune fine/coarse scales for local vs regional landform emphasis.

Inputs

Parameter	Optional	Description
input DEM	no	Input DEM used for terrain-derivative and landform classification workflows.
flat/profile/plan thresholds	no	Curvature and surface-form thresholds used to separate landform classes.
fine_scale, coarse_scale	no	Multiscale analysis windows used to capture local and broad terrain structure.
optional landform_polygons_output	yes	Optional switch/path to emit vectorized landform polygons.

Outputs

Parameter	Type	Description
landform_units	GeoTIFF	Categorical landform unit raster from terrain analysis.
multiscale_signature	GeoTIFF	Multiscale terrain-signature raster for landscape interpretation.
landform_polygons	optional vector	Optional vectorized landform polygons for cartographic/reporting use.
summary	JSON	Machine-readable summary report containing run metadata, QA diagnostics, and key metrics.
html_report	HTML	Human-readable customer-facing report generated from the summary contract for stakeholder review and QA traceability.

Python Example

import whitebox_workflows as wbw

wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

landform, signature, polygons, summary = wbe.soil_landscape_classification(
    input="data/dem.tif",
    fine_scale=2.0,
    coarse_scale=8.0,
    output_prefix="output/soil_landscape",
    landform_polygons_output="output/landforms.gpkg",
)

print(landform)
print(signature)
print(polygons)
print(summary)

License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

Project Links

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