{"id":2968415,"date":"2026-06-02T08:00:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?post_type=blog&#038;p=2968415"},"modified":"2026-06-02T08:38:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-02T15:38:48","slug":"calculate-rugosity-index-from-elevation-surfaces-using-the-surface-area-ratio-tool","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/spatial-analyst\/analytics\/calculate-rugosity-index-from-elevation-surfaces-using-the-surface-area-ratio-tool","title":{"rendered":"Calculate rugosity index from elevation surfaces using the Surface Area Ratio tool"},"author":5751,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":""},"categories":[23341,37101,23051],"tags":[42181,23391,23101],"industry":[],"product":[36561,37031],"class_list":["post-2968415","blog","type-blog","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-analytics","category-announcements","category-water","tag-arcgis-pro","tag-spatial-analytics","tag-water-utilities","product-arcgis-pro","product-spatial-analyst"],"acf":{"authors":[{"ID":5751,"user_firstname":"Xuguang","user_lastname":"Wang","nickname":"Xuguang Wang","user_nicename":"waxg","display_name":"Xuguang Wang","user_email":"xuguang_wang@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2018-03-02 00:17:35","user_description":"Xuguang is a Product Engineer in the Spatial Analysis and Data Science team. He works with colleagues to design, develop and maintain geoprocessing tools with a focus in Raster Analysis.","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2018\/07\/xgpic-1.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"},{"ID":337362,"user_firstname":"Sydney","user_lastname":"Walker","nickname":"Sydney Walker","user_nicename":"swalker","display_name":"Sydney Walker","user_email":"swalker@esri.com","user_url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/?s=#&amp;author=swalker","user_registered":"2023-04-17 17:02:07","user_description":"Sydney is a Product Engineer on the Spatial Analyst team at Esri, working on tools for hydrologic, terrain, and distance analyses. Her primary interest is in the application of GIS for solving problems in sustainable development, water resource management, and climate change impacts.","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2025\/04\/NewHeadshot-465x465.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"},{"ID":246232,"user_firstname":"Tania","user_lastname":"Lopez-Cantu","nickname":"Tania Lopez-Cantu","user_nicename":"tlopezcantu","display_name":"Tania Lopez-Cantu","user_email":"tlopezcantu@esri.com","user_url":"","user_registered":"2021-07-02 17:07:13","user_description":"Tania Lopez-Cantu is a Senior Product Engineer in the Raster Analysis team at Esri. She works with raster and scientific multidimensional data to solve problems in water resources management and climate change impacts. Her role at Esri includes conducting research, building and maintaining tools for hydrological and terrain analysis. She holds a Ph.D. in Civil and Environmental Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.","user_avatar":"<img data-del=\"avatar\" src='https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2022\/10\/tanialopez-cantu_tan11562-465x465.jpg' class='avatar pp-user-avatar avatar-96 photo ' height='96' width='96'\/>"}],"short_description":"This blog introduces the new Surface Area Ratio tool in ArcGIS Pro 3.7.","flexible_content":[{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>Understanding the complexity of a terrain surface is essential in wildlife habitat suitability modeling, and rugosity indices are useful to measure it. While custom script tools have filled this gap in the past in the ArcGIS community, ArcGIS Pro 3.7 now provides a built-in solution: the new Surface Area Ratio tool in the Spatial Analyst toolbox enables you to calculate rugosity indices directly from any input surface raster; no custom scripting required.<\/p>\n<h2><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What you\u00a0can\u00a0do with the Surface Area Ratio tool<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>The tool calculates a surface area ratio by dividing the 3D surface area by the planar area at each input cell location. The 3D surface area for each cell is determined using the triangular approach in Jenness, 2004.<\/p>\n<p>You can choose between two types of planar area, the horizontal planar\u00a0area\u00a0and the arc-chord planar area, through the\u00a0<strong>Planar Area Type<\/strong>\u00a0parameter.\u00a0With\u00a0the\u00a0<strong>horizontal<\/strong> planar area type, the planar area is the cell area of the input raster on a horizontal plane. With the\u00a0<strong>arc-chord<\/strong> planar area type, instead of using the cell area on a horizontal plane directly, it projects the cell area on the local slope of a 3 by 3 neighborhood. Thus, the output surface area ratio removes the effect of the local slope, which is known as the arc-chord ratio rugosity index (Du Preez, 2015).<\/p>\n<p>The following figure is a cross-section view of a DEM surface, centered at Cell A. It shows how the horizontal planar area and arc-chord planar area of Cell A are determined in a 3 by 3 neighborhood, and what their differences are.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2968416,"id":2968416,"title":"surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1","filename":"surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","filesize":12527,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/spatial-analyst\/analytics\/calculate-rugosity-index-from-elevation-surfaces-using-the-surface-area-ratio-tool\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1","alt":"","author":"5751","description":"","caption":"","name":"surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2968415,"date":"2026-05-30 23:42:18","modified":"2026-05-30 23:42:18","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":616,"height":258,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":194,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","medium_large-width":616,"medium_large-height":258,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","large-width":616,"large-height":258,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","1536x1536-width":616,"1536x1536-height":258,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","2048x2048-width":616,"2048x2048-height":258,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","card_image-width":616,"card_image-height":258,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_planar_illus1.png","wide_image-width":616,"wide_image-height":258}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<p>Besides the\u00a0<strong>Input Surface Raster<\/strong>\u00a0and the\u00a0<strong>Planar Area Type<\/strong> parameters, don\u2019t forget to specify the\u00a0<strong>Z Unit<\/strong>\u00a0parameter to ensure the correct calculation of the 3D area for each cell\u2014if you\u00a0don\u2019t\u00a0specify, the tool by default assumes meters.<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0optional\u00a0<strong>Output Surface Area Raster<\/strong>\u00a0parameter\u00a0allows you to save\u00a0the 3D surface areas\u00a0at\u00a0each cell location as a\u00a0separate raster.<\/p>\n<h2><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">An example: bathymetry data<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p>A common application of rugosity is in the ocean sciences to measure the complexity of the surface of the seafloor in bathymetric data. Below are examples of the input bathymetry data (left) and the output rugosity raster layer (right) created by the tool using the arc-chord planar area type. The bathymetry data is in a 1-meter resolution representing the seafloor terrain near the Florida Keys area. On the output raster layer, blue color represents smooth areas (with cell values near 1). The orange to red color represents areas of higher rugosity, with values greater than 1. Higher rugosity points to areas with coral reefs, which are an important habitat for marine wildlife.<\/p>\n"},{"acf_fc_layout":"image","image":{"ID":2968417,"id":2968417,"title":"surface_area_ratio_input_output","filename":"surface_area_ratio_input_output.png","filesize":724663,"url":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output.png","link":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/products\/spatial-analyst\/analytics\/calculate-rugosity-index-from-elevation-surfaces-using-the-surface-area-ratio-tool\/surface_area_ratio_input_output","alt":"","author":"5751","description":"","caption":"","name":"surface_area_ratio_input_output","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":2968415,"date":"2026-05-30 23:43:10","modified":"2026-05-30 23:43:10","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":900,"height":363,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output-213x200.png","thumbnail-width":213,"thumbnail-height":200,"medium":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output.png","medium-width":464,"medium-height":187,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output.png","medium_large-width":768,"medium_large-height":310,"large":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output.png","large-width":900,"large-height":363,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output.png","1536x1536-width":900,"1536x1536-height":363,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output.png","2048x2048-width":900,"2048x2048-height":363,"card_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output-826x333.png","card_image-width":826,"card_image-height":333,"wide_image":"https:\/\/www.esri.com\/arcgis-blog\/app\/uploads\/2026\/05\/surface_area_ratio_input_output.png","wide_image-width":900,"wide_image-height":363}},"image_position":"center","orientation":"horizontal","hyperlink":""},{"acf_fc_layout":"content","content":"<h2><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Learn more<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">For more information on how the tool works,\u00a0visit\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/doc.esri.com\/en\/arcgis-pro\/latest\/tool-reference\/spatial-analyst\/how-surface-area-ratio-works.html\"><span data-contrast=\"auto\">How Surface Area\u00a0Ratio works<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">References<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"none\">Jenness, Jeff S. 2004. Calculating landscape surface area from digital elevation models. Wildlife Society Bulletin 32 (3): 829-839<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Du Preez, C.,\u00a02015.\u00a0A new arc\u2013chord ratio (ACR) rugosity index for quantifying three-dimensional landscape structural complexity. Landscape Ecology, 2015, 30, 181\u2013192.<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u200b<\/span><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u202f<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">U.S. Coastal Lidar Elevation Data &#8211; Including\u00a0The\u00a0Great Lakes\u00a0And\u00a0Territories, 1996 \u2013 Present.\u00a0Office for Coastal Management, 2026.\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/inport\/item\/48242\"><span data-contrast=\"none\">https:\/\/www.fisheries.noaa.gov\/inport\/item\/48242<\/span><\/a><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n"}],"related_articles":[{"ID":2742892,"post_author":"337362","post_date":"2025-05-13 09:00:26","post_date_gmt":"2025-05-13 16:00:26","post_content":"","post_title":"Analyze terrain with the new Multiscale Surface tools in 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