Fill (Spatial Analyst)
Summary
Fills sinks in a surface raster to remove small imperfections in the data.
Usage
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A sink is a cell with an undefined drainage direction; no cells surrounding it are lower. The pour point is the boundary cell with the lowest elevation for the contributing area of a sink. If the sink were filled with water, this is the point where water would pour out.
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The z-limit specifies the maximum difference allowed between the depth of a sink and the pour point and determines which sinks will be filled and which will remain untouched. The z-limit is not the maximum depth to which a sink will be filled.
For example, consider a sink area where the pour point is 210 feet in elevation, and the deepest point within the sink is 204 feet (a difference of 6 feet). If the z-limit is set to 8, this particular sink will be filled. However, if the z-limit is set to 4, this sink will not be filled since the depth of this sink exceeds this difference and would be considered a valid sink.
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All sinks that are less than the z-limit, and lower than their lowest adjacent neighbor, will be filled to the height of their pour points.
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Running the Fill tool can be memory, CPU, and disk–intensive. It can require up to four times the disk space of the input raster.
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The number of sinks found with the z-limit will determine the length of processing time. The more sinks there are, the longer the processing time will be.
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The Sink tool can be used in advance of using the Fill tool to find the number of sinks and help identify their depth. Knowing the depth of the sinks can help in determining an appropriate z-limit.
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Fill can also be used to remove peaks. A peak is a cell where no adjacent cells are higher. To remove peaks, the input surface raster must be inverted. This can be performed with the Minus tool. Specify the highest value of the surface raster as the first input to Minus and surface raster as the second input. Perform a Fill. Invert the results to obtain a surface that has original surface raster values with the peaks removed. The z-limit can be applied to this process as well. If nothing is specified for z-limit, then all peaks will be removed. If it is specified, where the difference in z-value between a peak and its highest adjacent neighbor is greater than the z-limit, that peak will not be removed.
Syntax
| Parameter | Explanation | Data Type |
in_surface_raster | The input raster representing a continuous surface. | Raster Layer |
z_limit (Optional) | Maximum elevation difference between a sink and its pour point to be filled. If the difference in z-values between a sink and its pour point is greater than the z_limit, that sink will not be filled. The value for Z-limit must be greater than zero. Unless a value is specified for this parameter, all sinks will be filled, regardless of depth. | Double |
Return Value
| Name | Explanation | Data Type |
| out_surface_raster |
The output surface raster after the sinks have been filled. | Raster |
Code Sample
This example fills the sinks of an input elevation surface Grid raster.
import arcpy
from arcpy import env
from arcpy.sa import *
env.workspace = "C:/sapyexamples/data"
outFill = Fill("elevation")
outFill.save("C:/sapyexamples/output/outfill01")
This example fills the sinks of an input elevation surface Grid raster with a z-limit applied.
# Name: Fill_Ex_02.py
# Description: Fills sinks in a surface raster.
# Requirements: Spatial Analyst Extension
# Import system modules
import arcpy
from arcpy import env
from arcpy.sa import *
# Set environment settings
env.workspace = "C:/sapyexamples/data"
# Set local variables
inSurfaceRaster = "elevation"
zLimit = 3.28
# Check out the ArcGIS Spatial Analyst extension license
arcpy.CheckOutExtension("Spatial")
# Execute FlowDirection
outFill = Fill(inSurfaceRaster, zLimit)
# Save the output
outFill.save("C:/sapyexamples/output/outfill02")