An overview of the Surface toolset

Available with Spatial Analyst license.

Available with 3D Analyst license.

With the Surface tools, you can quantify and visualize a terrain landform represented by a digital elevation model.

Starting with a raster elevation surface as input, with these tools, you can gain information by producing a new dataset that identifies a specific pattern within an original dataset. You can derive patterns that were not readily apparent in the original surface, such as contours, angle of slope, steepest downslope direction (Aspect), shaded relief (Hillshade), and visibility.

Each surface tool provides insight into a surface that can be used as an end in itself or as input to additional analysis.

The following table lists the available tools and provides a brief description of each.

Tools of the Surface toolset

Tool	Description
Add Surface Information	Attributes features with spatial information derived from a surface.
Aspect	Derives the aspect from each cell of a raster surface.
Contour	Creates a feature class of contours from a raster surface.
Contour List	Creates a feature class of selected contour values from a raster surface.
Contour with Barriers	Creates contours from a raster surface. The inclusion of barrier features allows you to independently generate contours on either side of a barrier.
Curvature	Calculates the curvature of a raster surface, optionally including profile and plan curvature.
Cut Fill	Calculates the volume change between two surfaces. This is typically used for cut and fill operations.
Geodesic Viewshed	Determines the raster surface locations visible to a set of observer features using geodesic methods.
Hillshade	Creates a shaded relief from a surface raster by considering the illumination source angle and shadows.
Interpolate Shape	Creates 3D features by interpolating z-values from a surface.
Observer Points	Identifies which observer points are visible from each raster surface location.
Slope	Identifies the slope (gradient or steepness) from each cell of a raster.
Surface Parameters	Determines parameters of a raster surface such as aspect, slope and curvatures.
Viewshed	Determines the raster surface locations visible to a set of observer features.
Visibility	Determines the raster surface locations visible to a set of observer features, or identifies which observer points are visible from each raster surface location.