Multi-scale topographic position#

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A multi-scale topographic position (MSTP) visualization is an effective means of visualising and interpreting the multi-scale topographic character of a landscape.

MSTP simultaneously summarizes the relative topographic position of sites across three defined ranges of spatial scales (local, meso, and broad).

The density of topographic information in an MSTP visualization is very high; on par with or exceeding that of commonly used methods such as hillshading.

Some practice is required to train the eye to recognize colors as the summation of relative topographic position across three scale ranges, rather than, for example, as the raw elevation observed in a DEM.

Source: Lindsay, Cockburn & Russell (2015), An integral image approach to performing multi-scale topographic position analysis