To produce a Swiss-style hillshading as described by Eduard Imhof in "Cartographic Relief Representation", you can use a median filter on an existing hillshade to produce a smoothing effect. The median filter generalizes the terrain to emphasize the major geographic features, minimize the minor features and smooth irregularities on the slopes; however, it still maintains the rugged characteristics of ridge tops and canyon bottoms. You can then create an additional surface from the original DEM and the default hillshade in such a way as to simulate an aerial perspective that makes the higher elevations lighter and the lower elevations darker. Finally, the three resulting rasters -- filtered hillshade, aerial perspective raster and DEM -- can then be displayed with transparencies to produce an effect similar to the Swiss-style hillshade.

This model is derived from the work of David Barnes, Product Specialist at ESRI.

David's work was developed, with help from Steven Geissler, from the hillshading techiniques described by Imhof in "Cartographic Relief Representation".

Usage Tips

The input DEM is the digital elevation model.

The filtered hillshade is a generalized hillshade that emphasizes the major geographic features, minimizes the minor features and smooths irregularities on the slopes; however, it still maintains the rugged characteristics of ridge tops and canyon bottoms.

The aerial perspective raster is an additional surface derived from the original DEM and the default hillshade in such a way as to simulate an areal perspective that makes the higher elevations lighter and the lower elevations darker.

The three rasters -- filtered hillshade, aerial perspective and DEM -- can then be displayed with transparencies to produce an effect similar to the Swiss-style hillshade. Display them in this order: 1) DEM on the top with a color ramp that has variations in hues to show elevation ranges using about 55% transparency, 2) filtered hillshade in the middle with a single hue color ramp, like a grayscale ramp, using about 35% transparency, and 3) aerial perspective on the bottom with a grayscale ramp and no transparency.

Command line syntax

Swiss_Hillshade <Input_DEM> <Swiss_Aerial_Perspective> <Swiss_Filtered_Hillshade>

Parameters

Expression	Explanation
<Input_DEM>	This is the input DEM raster. Display this on the top with a color ramp that has variations in hues to show elevation ranges using about 55% transparency.
<Swiss_Aerial_Perspective>	This is the name of the raster that simulates variation in illumination from an aerial perspective. Display this on the bottom with a grayscale color ramp and no transparency.
<Swiss_Filtered_Hillshade>	This is the name of the raster that smooths out the appearance of the hillshaded surface. Display this in the middle with a single hue color ramp, like a grayscale ramp, and set the transparency to about 35%.

Command Line Example

Swiss_Hillshade <DEM_10m> <Swiss_Fltr> <Swiss_AerialP> {4}

Scripting syntax

Swiss_Hillshade (Input_DEM, Swiss_Aerial_Perspective, Swiss_Filtered_Hillshade)

Parameters

Expression	Explanation
Input DEM (Required)	This is the input DEM raster. Display this on the top with a color ramp that has variations in hues to show elevation ranges using about 55% transparency.
Swiss Aerial Perspective (Required)	This is the name of the raster that simulates variation in illumination from an aerial perspective. Display this on the bottom with a grayscale color ramp and no transparency.
Swiss Filtered Hillshade (Required)	This is the name of the raster that smooths out the appearance of the hillshaded surface. Display this in the middle with a single hue color ramp, like a grayscale ramp, and set the transparency to about 35%.

Script Example

Swiss_Hillshade (DEM_10m, Swiss_Fltr, Swiss_AerialP, 4)

Name	Explanation
Divide
Hillshade
Focal Statistics
Plus

Swiss Hillshade Model

Usage Tips

Command line syntax

Scripting syntax

Model