QGIS toolbox to extract swath profiles. After Swath Profiles are calculated, it will show a graphic window with the output swaths. It also calculates THI* index (see Pérez-Peña et al., 2016).

To install the toolbox, copy the SwathProfiler.py and SwathProfiler.py.help files in the script folder:

• Users/user_name/.qgis2/processing/scripts [MAC] (Hidden folder)
• C:\Users\user_name.qgis2/processing/scripts [Windows]

Alternatively you can use the "Add script from file" tool located in the Processing Toolbox > Scripts > Tools. (With this method will not include the help file).

Just launch the Toolbox and fill the required parameters:

1. Polyline shapefile with the swath base lines
2. Digital Elevation Model
3. Half with of the Swath. It would take this widht at both sides of each base line
4. Name Field in the shapefile to take profile labels
5. Optional parameters (normally don't need to change)
   • Number of lines: Number of lines to analyze at each side of the profile. If leave 0, it will calculate 50 profiles at both sides of each base line.
   • Step size: Step size to take elevations along each elevation profile. If leave 0, it will take the DEM resolution.
   • Full resolution: If checked, ignore previous values of Number of lines and Step size to take the maximum resolution; Number of lines = (width / DEM resolution) and Step size = DEM Resolution. This take much longer and does not provide almost improvement, but could be usefull in some cases 😳

Once the tool have processed all the basins, it will show a graphic window with the swath profiles.

In this graphic window you can use the following keys:

• LEFT / RIGHT : Navigates throught the different Swath Profiles
• Q : Shows/hides the Q1 (percentile 25) and Q3 (percentile 75) lines
• T : Shows/hides the Transverse Hipsometric Integral (THI). See Pérez-Peña et al., 2016 for details.
• E : Shows/hides the enhanced Transverse Hipsometric Integral (THI*). See Pérez-Peña et al., 2016 for details.
• L : Shows/hides the legend
• D : Shows/hides all the profile data. It can slow down the rendering if a high number of lines (or Full resolution) was selected
• B : Shows/hides a gray background between max and min profiles

Pérez-Peña, J.V., Al-Awabdeh, M., Azañón, J.M., Galve, J.P., Booth-Rea, G., Notti, D., 2017. SwathProfiler and NProfiler: Two new ArcGIS Add-ins for the automatic extraction of swath and normalized river profiles. Computers & Geosciences 104, 135-150. doi:10.1016/j.cageo.2016.08.008