[GIS] Calculating slope between two points on DEM using ArcMap

arcgis-10.3arcgis-desktoparcmapdemslope

I'm a forester, and I do lots of work with LiDAR derived DEM's. I'm looking for a quick-and-easy tool to calculate the slope between two points. The application for this would be drawing a proposed road, where the slope of each road segment must be below a certain value. After quite a bit of searching, I'm unable to find a tool to accomplish this in ArcMap. Can anyone suggest an existing tool to accomplish this?

I don't need the slope along the surface of a DEM; I simply need a FAST way to calculate the straight-line slope between two points. Currently, the only way I'm able to do this is as follows:

  1. Load DEM into ArcMap.
  2. Create a new shapefile.
  3. Create a line feature with a single segment.
  4. Get the elevation values for the lines two vertices from the underlying DEM.
  5. Use math to calculate the slope of the straight line between the two vertices.

I'm looking for a workflow similar to the following:

  1. Click on "slope" tool.
  2. Click on point A, then click on point B.
  3. Dialogue box displays the straight-line slope between point A and point B.

I've been looking for an existing solution to accomplish this, and have come up empty handed.

Best Answer

I understand you'd like to design a route between 2 points in the mountains with slope being a constraint.

The solution I use is neither quick or easy.

Place equidistant points over dem. Connect them by lines, using triangulation. Calculate length and slope for each and assign cost of travel through it using both values. Calculate least cost path between your points.

Setting higher cost for bigger slopes will help you to avoid steep climbs\descends

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