Hallo, I would like to approximate a plane to my DEM. Is there any a tool or script in ArcGIS to calculate the best fitting plane to my topography? I am working with a 30 meter Raster DEM (TIFF). I would appreciate any help. Thank you very much.
I would create a systematic point sample, assign the raster values to the sample and then run a trend analysis with a 1st order polynomial. Here is the ArcGIS help for trend analysis http://help.arcgis.com/en/arcgisdesktop/10.0/help/index.html#//009z0000006v000000.htm. You will likely to play with your sample size. Since you want to create a flat "plane" surface you will likely not need a overly large sample.
