enforce_dendritic: Enforce dendritic river topology

In dci: Calculate the Dendritic Connectivity Index in River Networks

Enforce dendritic river topology

Description

Identifies and optionally corrects features in a river network that violate a strictly dendritic topology.

Usage

enforce_dendritic(rivers, correct = TRUE, quiet = FALSE, max_iter = 10)

Arguments

rivers	A rivers object returned by import_rivers().
correct	Logical. If FALSE (default), no changes are made and topological issues are identified only. If TRUE, issues are automatically corrected.
quiet	Logical. If FALSE, the function prints a summary including the global DCI and a map of segments. Defaults to TRUE.
max_iter	An integer indicating the maximum number of correction iterations to run. As some topological errors are corrected new ones can can arise requiring multiple passes. In some cases, an automated correction choice can lead to a recursive correction that eliminates most rivers. In this case, some manual corrections may help avoid this.

Details

In a dendritic network, two upstream rivers converge into a single downstream river at each confluence. This function can enforce this dendritic topology in a river network by detecting (and optionally correcting) two types of topological errors: (1) divergences, where a single river splits into multiple downstream branches (commonly forming loops or braided channels), and (2) complex confluences, where more than two upstream rivers meet at a single point.

If errors are being corrected manually, rerun this function again until no errors remain as correcting divergences can lead to other topological errors that need to be corrected

Value

If correct = FALSE, returns a sf object with the columns "divergent" and "complex" indicating topological errors. These columns contain integer identifiers indicating which features are part of the same divergent or complex structure. If correct = TRUE, returns a rivers object with the topological issues corrected.

Examples

# Import rivers
rivers_in <- import_rivers(yamaska_rivers, quiet = TRUE)

# Correct errors automatically
rivers_cor <- enforce_dendritic(rivers_in, correct = TRUE)

# Return highlighted topological errors for manual correction
rivers_uncor <- enforce_dendritic(rivers_in, correct = FALSE)

# For large river networks it may be better to specify a smaller number of
# correction sweeps.
rivers_cor <- enforce_dendritic(rivers_in, correct = TRUE, max_iter = 3)

dci documentation built on June 14, 2025, 1:08 a.m.