prepared by Dr. Andre Lehre, Dept.

of Geology, Humboldt State University

http://sorrel.humboldt.edu/~geodept/geology551/551_handouts/using_SHALSTAB.pdf

1 USING SHALSTAB IN ARCVIEW SHALSTAB is a program for predicting the probable locations of shallow infinite-slope type landslides, based on slope angle, drainage area, and degree of concentration of water from upslope. It operates on digital elevation models (DEMs) of topography. SHALSTAB was developed by Bill Dietrich of U.C. Berkeley and Dave Montgomery of the University of Washington, originally for Unix systems. It has recently (1999) been ported to PCs, where it runs as an extension to the GIS program ArcView. Required software: In order to run SHALSTAB you need a PC with ArcView 3.1 or higher and the Spatial Analyst extension. It is also desirable to have the 3D Analyst extension. Important information about names: SHALSTAB is very unforgiving about names. It does NOT like names longer than 8 characters with a 3-letter extension after the period. If you try to use the long file and directory names possible in Windows 98 and 2000, SHALSTAB will tend to fail with a variety of error messages. ArcView will not accept names with embedded spaces. SHALSTAB and supporting documents are available for download from the U.C. Berkeley geomorphology site: http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~geomorph/shalstab/index.htm The object of this document is to lead you step-by-step through the use of SHALSTAB in ArcView. 1. Create the SHALSTAB data folder if it doesnt already exist. Look on the D: drive and see if there is a folder or directory named SHALSTAB. If there is, fine. If there is not, create a new folder with that name. In the screenshot below, I have just created the SHALSTAB data folder on the D drive.

2 2. Open ArcView by choosing it from the start menu: Programs/Esri/ArcView GIS 3.2/ArcView GIS 3.2.

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3 Do not create a new project. When ArcView opens, it will usually ask you if you want to Create a new project. Answer no by clicking CANCEL.

4.

If SHALSTAB doesnt automatically load, open the Extensions menu. Access the Extensions menu the File menu. The Extensions menu allows you to select which extensions you want loaded.

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4 Be sure 3D Analyst is activated. In the Extensions menu, scroll upwards and be sure that 3D Analyst is checked. If it isnt click on the box to its left so that a check-mark appears.

6.

Activate SHALSTAB, and be sure Spatial Analyst is loaded. In the Extensions menu scroll down till you find SHALSTAB. Click the box to its left so that a check-mark appears. Also be sure that Spatial Analyst is checked (it will usually be a white check.)

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5 Click OK to exit the Extensions menu. When you click OK the Extensions menu will disappear and the extension that you selected will be loaded.

8.

Choose the SHALSTAB data directory. When SHALSTAB loads, it puts up a dialog box asking where the SHALSTAB data directory is. You should type in the appropriate location, e.g. D:\SHALSTAB. Note: you will get an error message if SHALSTAB cant find the directory, and you will have to quit ArcView and start over.

6 9. Click OK when the SHALSTAB acknowledgments comes up.

10. Select View SHALSTAB by double-clicking on it or highlighting it and clicking on Open. SHALSTAB will create a new view called View SHALSTAB. This is where you want to open your DEMs and add themes. So double-click on it, or open it.

7 11. You should now have a blank view labeled View SHALSTAB. A whole lot of SHALSTAB menu items will be displayed in the ArcView menu bar.

12. To load the DEM that SHALSTAB will operate on, first choose Import Data Source... from the File menu.

8 13. Select USGS DEM as the file type to import. From the Import Data Source dialog box, click on the little down arrow to the right of ASCII Raster to get the file type menu to drop down. Scroll down to USGS DEM and select it.

14. Locate the DEM to be loaded and select it. In the resulting dialog box, navigate to the directory where the DEM to be loaded lives. The possible DEMs are in the list to the left. Note: this will show only files with the extension .dem, unless you change it via the List Files of Type dropdown menu at the bottom. Open the sanraf30.dem file (the San Rafael 30-m DEM) by double-clicking it, or highlighting it and clicking OK.

9 15. Tell ArcView it can create an imagegrid by clicking OK. ArcView will create an output grid from the DEM. This dialog box lets you name it and tells ArcView where you want it put. Its best to use the defaults. The grid should be created in the SHALSTAB data folder.

16. Add the resulting imagegrid to View SHALSTAB as a theme. by clicking Yes in the Import Data Source dialog box. (A theme is simply something that youre going to look at as part of the overall view. All of our output will be themes.)

10 17. To display the resulting image (the imported DEM) click the little box to the left of the words Imgrd1. You can turn themes on and off by clicking these little boxes. When you have a list of themes, those at the top of the list cover up those lower down on the list. Themes that are partly transparent (like contour lines) will appear superposed on top of themes lower down in the list. You can move the position of the themes by dragging their names up or down the list.

18. View the DEM. The colors refer to the elevation ranges (in m) given in the legend below the name Imgrd1.

11 19. Invoke SHALSTAB by choosing the SHALSTAB menu.

20. From the dropdown menu select q/T from elevation grid (one step).

21. When SHALSTAB asks if elevation units are in m, click OK. USGS DEMs are in metric units. SHALSTAB can deal only with metric data.

12 22. Click OK on the SHALSTAB Warning. The first time you run SHALSTAB, it is worthwhile to read this. Scroll down to read it all.

23. Tell SHALSTAB to remove sinks. Our area does not have large flat areas, so removing sinks (closed depressions) is OK.

24. Accept the default values of friction angle and soil density, at least the first time. You can enter values of angle of internal friction and soil density here. Dietrich and Montgomery suggest that for purposes of comparison with other areas its useful to use the default values of =45 and = 1700 kg/m3. Also, in many places we dont know the actual values.

13 25. Tell SHALSTAB what elevation grid theme to use and click OK. You use this dialog box to select the elevation grid that SHALSTAB will process. In this case you want to use Imgrd1, the elevation grid that was just calculated from the DEM.

26. Ask SHALSTAB to compute and display all the intermediate grids, as well as the slope stability grid by clicking Yes. In the process of computing the slope stability grid, SHALSTAB computes a) an elevation grid with sinks (closed depressions) removed; b) a slope grid; 3) a type of drainage area grid showing the number of slope elements (pixels) that drain into any downslope element (this outlines the drainage system). To display these, you need to select Yes.

Be patient; it will take a while for SHALSTAB to do the computations.

14 27. View the slope stability grid. SHALSTAB will display a map (Imgrd1qt_45_1700) showing values of log(q/T). The values will be negative, since q/T will be less than 1. Those areas with the largest absolute values of log(q/T) are least stable.

28. View the drainage area grid by unchecking Imgrd1qt_45_1700. This displays Log 10 of imgrd1ab. This gives the number of upstream/upslope pixels that contribute flow to any downstream pixel.

15 29. View the slope grid by unchecking Log10 of imgrd1ab. This displays a map of the tangent of slope angle. Slope angle equivalents in radians are shown.

30. View the sink-removed elevation grid by unchecking imgrd1slp. Uncheck this when youre done.

16 31. View the slope stability map again by checking Imgrd1qt_45_1700. Select the Lone Tree area of the map using the zoom tool (magnifying glass). The Lone Tree Cr area in the SW corner of the map. Click on the + magnifying glass to get the zoom tool. Drag with it to select a square in the SW 1/4 to 1/8 of the map. When you let go, ArcView will enlarge that area.

32. Be sure that Lone Tree Cr lies within the enlarged area. If necessary, use the move tool (hand) the shift the image around. An example of the enlarged area is shown below.

17 33. Not sure where Lone Tree Cr is? Select the basic elevation grid Imgrd1 by clicking to the right of its name. When it is selected the theme and its legend will appear to stand higher than the other themes in the list (see below).

34. Create a shaded relief model of the area by choosing Compute Hillshade from the Surface menu and use the defaults in the resulting dialog box. The Surface menu will be accessible only if the 3D Analyst extension is active. When you choose compute hillshade, ArcView will create a shaded relief map of the selected grid.

18 35. View the shaded relief map (hillshade theme) by checking the box to the left of its name. By looking at this you should be able to see whether you included all of Lone Tree Cr or not in your view area.

36. Make a contour map of the Lone Tree Basin. Uncheck the hillshade image. Uncheck the slope stability map if its still checked. Be sure that the basic elevation grid Imgrd1 is still selected (see step 33). Select Create Contours from the Surface menu.

19 37. Set the contour interval to 20 m. In the resulting dialog box, type in 20 for the contour interval and click OK.

20 38. View the contour map (contour theme) by checking the box to the left of its name.

21 39. Activate the slope stability theme by clicking on the box to the left of Imgrdqt_45_1700 in order to see the topo map superimposed on the slope stability map. If the slope stability theme wasnt turned off you can skip this step. Youll already be seeing the superimposed images.

22 40. Compare your predicted unstable areas with the areas on your own landslide map. Print your results or save it as a gif or jpeg or tiff file for viewing or printing from another program like Photoshop.