Drop Zone Suitability (Intelligence)

Summary

Identifies drop zone locations suitable for parachuting equipment or personnel within a designated area of interest given slope and vegetation data.

Usage

• This is a preliminary assessment tool that only considers the input data. Actual description and survey of the final drop zone (DZ) requires further analysis and specific measurements.

• A bounding area, slope, and vegetation will be used as input.

• Suitable slope for troop drops is less than 10 percent. Less than 30 percent slope is suitable for supply drops. More than 30 percent slope is excluded.

• Results are either good (less than 10 percent) or fair (between 10 and 30 percent). The Slope Category Code and Slope Category Description fields contain the resulting values for each area in the Output Feature Class parameter value.

• Areas where no vegetation coverage is provided will automatically be excluded.

• The Input Combined Vegetation Features parameter value must contain a field named f_code that contains valid Feature and Attribute Coding Catalog (FACC) data dictionary values. Values are loosely based on FACC v2.1 values for DIGEST (Digital Information Exchange Standard) digital feature definitions.

• Suitable vegetation includes other land uses as well. The list of possible areas (preceded by their FACC code) are as follows:

  • BH135: Rice Field
  • DA020: Barren Ground
  • EA010: Cropland
  • EB010: Grassland
  • EB015: Grass/Scrub/Brush
  • EB020: Scrub/Brush/Bush
  • EC040: US-Cleared Way/Cut Line/Firebreak, UK-Cleared Way/Firebreak
  • EE020: Land Devoid of Vegetation
  • BH150: Salt Flat
  • BJ030: Glacier
  • BJ100: Snow/Ice Field
  • BJ110: Tundra
  • GB055: Runway
  • GB075: Taxiway
  • AK160: Stadium
  • AK120: Park
  • AK040: Sports Ground
  • AK100: Golf Course
  • AK101: Golf Driving Range
  • AK090: Fairground

Parameters

Dialog

Label	Explanation	Data Type
Input Percent Slope Raster	The slope raster percentage used to determine the slope component of DZ suitability.	Raster Layer
Input Combined Vegetation Features	The features that define the combined vegetation and land cover types. These features will be used to find areas with suitable vegetation coverage for DZs.	Feature Layer
Clip Features	The area within which suitable DZs will be found.	Feature Set
Output Feature Class	The output feature class showing terrain suitability for DZs.	Feature Class

Python

arcpy.intelligence.DropZones(in_slope_raster, in_vegetation_features, clip_features, out_feature_class)

Name	Explanation	Data Type
in_slope_raster	The slope raster percentage used to determine the slope component of DZ suitability.	Raster Layer
in_vegetation_features	The features that define the combined vegetation and land cover types. These features will be used to find areas with suitable vegetation coverage for DZs.	Feature Layer
clip_features	The area within which suitable DZs will be found.	Feature Set
out_feature_class	The output feature class showing terrain suitability for DZs.	Feature Class

Code sample

DropZoneSuitability example (Python window)

The following Python window script demonstrates how to use the DropZones function in immediate mode.

import arcpy

inputAOI = "C:/Data/data.gdb/AOI"
inputSlope = "C:/Data/data.gdb/Slope"
inputVeg = "C:/Data/data.gdb/CombinedVegetation"
outputZones = "C:/Data/data.gdb/DropZonesOut"
arcpy.DropZones_intelligence(inputSlope, inputVeg, inputAOI, outputZones)

Environments

This tool does not use any geoprocessing environments.

Licensing information

• Basic: Requires Spatial Analyst
• Standard: Requires Spatial Analyst
• Advanced: Requires Spatial Analyst