Determining elevation values for contours based on limited annotation/point values

Question

I've seen this touched on in a few other posts but no real solution.

I have a contours feature class with elevation values for only about 500 of the 5,000 contours and need to determine the elevation for the remaining contours. I also have an annotation layer showing elevation that I converted to a point feature (so about 1600 points with an elevation value).

I don't think the Near tool alone would be beneficial hear because of how much the elevation is changing over just a couple meters. If I were to run the Near tool without a distance limiter, the nearest elevation point to a contour could be several meters away and the interpolated elevation would be way off. I have run it with a distance limiter of one meter to get estimated values for another 600 or so contours. Not sure how to get elevation values for the remaining contours.

Would topo to raster be beneficial here? Meaning, run it based on the points or contours I have values for now, and then interpolate the remaining contour elevation values off of the generated raster?

Mattborski · Answer

Great. Thanks, Jim. Ran this one. This tool may prove to be the most useful for what I'm trying to do. Appreciate the help!

Anonymous User · Answer

Correct, the z values are stored in the individual vertices of the output PolylineZ feature geometries.

The related tool Add Surface Information might be more useful to you. It will report as separate output fields the min, max and average z encountered by each entire input geometry . Its also available with either a 3d or spatial analyst license.

-jt

Mattborski · Answer

Thanks, Jim. I wasn't aware of that tool. I ran it but don't see a field with the z/elevation values populated in the new feature class. Is that just stored in the geometry?