The uDig Spatial Toolbox for Hydro-Geomorphic Analysis

Geographical Information Systems (GIS) are now widely used in hydrology andgeomorphology to automate basin, hillslope and stream network analyses. Several commercial GIS software packages are available which provide terrain analysis functionalities for hydrogeomorphology, however, these are often prohibitively expensive. JGrasstools in uDig GIS, is, instead free and Open Source. Recently, uDig was integrated with significant resources for environmental analysis. The Spatial Toolbox for uDig is a specialized toolset for topographical analysis, geomorphometry and hydrology. A large number of tools are included in the toolbox for terrain analysis, river network delineation, and basin topology characterization. They are designed to meet the research needs of academics and scientists, but it remains simple enough in operation to be used for student instruction and professional use. JGrasstools and uDig are developed in Java, which ensures their portability in all operating systems running a Java Virtual Machine. This chapter demonstrates the capabilities of the uDig Spatial Toolbox, which range from the extraction of landform parameters to more advanced DEM manipulations and hydro-geomorphological modelling