Western US Ruggedness Reclassified into 6 Classes

"Vector Ruggedness Measure (VRM) measures terrain ruggedness as the variation in three-dimensional orientation of grid cells within a neighborhood. Vector analysis is used to calculate the dispersion of vectors normal (orthogonal) to grid cells within the specified neighborhood. This method effectively captures variability in slope and aspect into a single measure. Ruggedness values in the output raster can range from 0 (no terrain variation) to 1 (complete terrain variation). Typical values for natural terrains range between 0 and about 0.4. VRM was adapted from a method first proposed by Hobson (1972). VRM appears to decouple terrain ruggedness from slope better than current ruggedness indices, such as TRI or LSRI. See Sappington et al. 2007, for further details" (Sappington 2012). After calculating raw VRM values we, binned the values into 6 classes using Jenks Natural Breaks for use in the Land Treatment Exploration Tool Similarity Index. Classes range from very low to very high.

Data and Resources

Field Value
accessLevel public
bureauCode {010:12}
catalog_@context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier USGS:5a8482b7e4b00f54eb34d6a3
metadata_type geospatial
modified 20200819
old-spatial -133.770087776, 27.3622478263, -101.448805076, 52.008905857
publisher U.S. Geological Survey
publisher_hierarchy Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
resource-type Dataset
source_datajson_identifier true
source_hash 68bab3f1b285bc30c3ca4915a042d85c461dbb56
source_schema_version 1.1
spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-133.770087776, 27.3622478263], [-133.770087776, 52.008905857], [ -101.448805076, 52.008905857], [ -101.448805076, 27.3622478263], [-133.770087776, 27.3622478263]]]}
theme {geospatial}
Groups
  • AmeriGEOSS
  • National Provider
  • North America
Tags
  • amerigeo
  • amerigeoss
  • ckan
  • environment
  • geo
  • geoss
  • national
  • north-america
  • roughness
  • ruggedness
  • terrain
  • united-states
  • usgs-5a8482b7e4b00f54eb34d6a3
  • western-north-america
  • western-united-states
isopen False
license_id notspecified
license_title License not specified
maintainer FRESC Science Data Coordinator
maintainer_email fresc_outreach@usgs.gov
metadata_created 2025-11-21T11:11:26.987524
metadata_modified 2025-11-21T11:11:26.987527
notes "Vector Ruggedness Measure (VRM) measures terrain ruggedness as the variation in three-dimensional orientation of grid cells within a neighborhood. Vector analysis is used to calculate the dispersion of vectors normal (orthogonal) to grid cells within the specified neighborhood. This method effectively captures variability in slope and aspect into a single measure. Ruggedness values in the output raster can range from 0 (no terrain variation) to 1 (complete terrain variation). Typical values for natural terrains range between 0 and about 0.4. VRM was adapted from a method first proposed by Hobson (1972). VRM appears to decouple terrain ruggedness from slope better than current ruggedness indices, such as TRI or LSRI. See Sappington et al. 2007, for further details" (Sappington 2012). After calculating raw VRM values we, binned the values into 6 classes using Jenks Natural Breaks for use in the Land Treatment Exploration Tool Similarity Index. Classes range from very low to very high.
num_resources 2
num_tags 15
title Western US Ruggedness Reclassified into 6 Classes