Create A Hillshade From a Digital Elevation Model Using EarthPy

Learn how to create a hillshade from a DEM using the EarthPy es.hillshade() function.

Create A Hillshade Layer Using EarthPy

Note

The examples below show you how to use the es.hillshade() function from EarthPy.

Create a Hillshade from a Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

A hillshade is a 3D representation of a surface. Hillshades are generally rendered in greyscale. The darker and lighter colors represent the shadows and highlights that you would visually expect to see in a terrain model. Hillshades are often used as an underlay in a map, to make the data appear more 3-Dimensional and thus visually interesting. This vignette will show you how to create a hillshade from a DEM using EarthPy. It will highlight how to adjust the sun’s azimuth, altitude and other settings that will impact how the hillshade shadows are modeled in the data.

The hillshade function is a part of the spatial module in EarthPy.

Import Packages

You will need several packages to get started. You will use Rasterio to open up the DEM file needed to create the hillshade layer.

import os
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import earthpy as et
import earthpy.spatial as es
import earthpy.plot as ep
import rasterio as rio

# Download the data needed for this vignette
data = et.data.get_data("vignette-elevation")

Out:

Downloading from https://ndownloader.figshare.com/articles/8259098/versions/2
Extracted output to /home/docs/earth-analytics/data/vignette-elevation/.

Open up the DEM

To begin, open your DEM layer as a numpy array using Rasterio. Below you set all terrain values < 0 to nan. Next, plot the data using ep.plot_bands().

# Set the home directory and get the data for the exercise
os.chdir(os.path.join(et.io.HOME, "earth-analytics"))
dtm = "data/vignette-elevation/pre_DTM.tif"

# Open the DEM with Rasterio
with rio.open(dtm) as src:
    elevation = src.read(1)
    # Set masked values to np.nan
    elevation[elevation < 0] = np.nan

# Plot the data
ep.plot_bands(
    elevation,
    scale=False,
    cmap="gist_earth",
    title="DTM Without Hillshade",
    figsize=(10, 6),
)
plt.show()
../_images/sphx_glr_plot_dem_hillshade_001.png

Create the Hillshade

Once the DEM is read in, call es.hillshade() to create the hillshade.

# Create and plot the hillshade with earthpy
hillshade = es.hillshade(elevation)

ep.plot_bands(
    hillshade,
    scale=False,
    cbar=False,
    title="Hillshade made from DTM",
    figsize=(10, 6),
)
plt.show()
../_images/sphx_glr_plot_dem_hillshade_002.png

Change the Azimuth of the Sun

The angle that sun light hits the landscape, impacts the shadows and highlights created on the landscape. You can adjust the azimuth values to adjust angle of the highlights and shadows that are created in your output hillshade. Azimuth numbers can range from 0 to 360 degrees, where 0 is due North. The default value for azimuth in es.hillshade() is 30 degrees.

# Change the azimuth of the hillshade layer
hillshade_azimuth_210 = es.hillshade(elevation, azimuth=210)

# Plot the hillshade layer with the modified azimuth
ep.plot_bands(
    hillshade_azimuth_210,
    scale=False,
    cbar=False,
    title="Hillshade with Azimuth set to 210 Degrees",
    figsize=(10, 6),
)
plt.show()
../_images/sphx_glr_plot_dem_hillshade_003.png

Change the Angle Altitude of the Sun

Another variable you can adjust for hillshade is what angle of the sun. The angle_altitude parameter values range from 0 to 90. 90 represents the sun shining from directly above the scene. The default value for angle_altitude in es.hillshade() is 30 degrees.

# Adjust the azimuth value
hillshade_angle_10 = es.hillshade(elevation, angle_altitude=10)

# Plot the hillshade layer with the modified angle altitude
ep.plot_bands(
    hillshade_angle_10,
    scale=False,
    cbar=False,
    title="Hillshade with Angle Altitude set to 10 Degrees",
    figsize=(10, 6),
)
plt.show()
../_images/sphx_glr_plot_dem_hillshade_004.png

Overlay a DEM on top of the Hillshade

A hillshade can be used to visually enhance a DEM. To overlay the data, use the ep.plot_bands() function in EarthPy combined with ax.imshow(). The alpha setting sets the tranparency value for the hillshade layer.

# Plot the DEM and hillshade at the same time
# sphinx_gallery_thumbnail_number = 5
fig, ax = plt.subplots(figsize=(10, 6))
ep.plot_bands(
    elevation,
    ax=ax,
    scale=False,
    cmap="terrain",
    title="Lidar Digital Elevation Model (DEM)\n overlayed on top of a hillshade",
)
ax.imshow(hillshade, cmap="Greys", alpha=0.5)
plt.show()
../_images/sphx_glr_plot_dem_hillshade_005.png

Total running time of the script: ( 0 minutes 4.473 seconds)

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