topic Re: Calculate volume of basin in 3D Questions

Calculate volume of basin

Anonymous User — Tue, 03 Dec 2013 15:47:30 GMT

Original User: chyang0107

Hi all,

I tried to use two methods to calculate the volume of basin in New Mexico.

First, in the attached file (RasterImage.jpg), I created the interpolated raster surface of top apart of the unit rock from points by the attribute "elevation". Then in the "Layer Properties", I clicked the "Classify" and then used the number "Sum" in "Classification Statistics" to multiply the unit pixel area (100*100 square ft). The bottom part of the unit rock was calculated in the same way. Then the difference between top and bottom part of raster volumes would represent the volume of the unit rock.

Second, in the attached file(VolumeCalculation.xlsx), I have a question about the tool �??Surface Volume�?� in 3D Analyst. I want to calculate the volume between two interpolated raster layers. I set different elevations as Plane Height with the option Reference Plane �??below�?� to run this tool to get the volume of the targeted raster layers. The difference between two rasters is the volume of the unit rock as one raster is the top and the other is the bottom of the rock. You can see that the tool provides different volumes with varying elevations in the attached file (VolumeCalculation.xlsx). Instead of the option �??below�?�, the option �??above�?� the Plane Height (�??0�?�) was used to calculate the volume above. I am not sure which options such as Plane Height and Reference Plane (above or below) could provide precise result.

Surface Volume (3D Analyst)
http://resources.arcgis.com/en/help/main/10.1/index.html#//00q900000027000000

Please give your valuable opinions on both methods. Or you could provide other tools.

Thanks,
Hank

Re: Calculate volume of basin

Anonymous User — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 13:10:50 GMT

Original User: jimcousins

Have you looked into 3D Analyst Tools >> Triangulated Surface >> Surface Difference?
Regards,
Jim

Re: Calculate volume of basin

Anonymous User — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 14:37:41 GMT

Original User: chyang0107

Hi Jim,

Thank you for this valuable information. I will follow your instructions and give you an update.

Thanks,
Hank

Re: Calculate volume of basin

Anonymous User — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 15:39:28 GMT

Original User: chyang0107

Hi Jim,

I did use the tool "Surface Difference" to process two TINs converted from two rasters. The processed result was still not precise since I can tell the resulting raster image only fits the small raster (Rock_Top) extent even after I specified the extent as the big raster (Rock_bottom). Even though the tool in 3D Analyst supports the Environments setting, �??Extent�?� (I also specified the Mask to big raster (Rock_bottom) in the "Raster Analysis").

Please let me know your valuable information.

Thanks,
Hank

Re: Calculate volume of basin

JimCousins — Thu, 05 Dec 2013 18:37:16 GMT

The analysis can only work with the intersection of the extents, or the areas covered by both data sets. Otherwise, there are no constraints, and the values would go to infinity where there is no rock top to provide a stopping point.
Regards,
Jim

Re: Calculate volume of basin

Anonymous User — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 15:22:02 GMT

Original User: groot2000

Also, be aware of the limitations when using the Area & Volume statistics on rasters (TINs are okay). Use the Cut/Fill method instead.
http://forums.arcgis.com/threads/69356-Area-and-Volume-tools-giving-erroneous-results