8/13/2019 Cut Fill Tool

1/3

A cut-and-fill operation is a procedure in which the elevation of a landform surface is modified by

the removal or addition of surface material.

The Cut Filltool summarizes the areas and volumes of change from a cut-and-fill operation. By

taking surfaces of a given location at two different time periods, it identifies regions of surface

material removal, surface material addition, and areas where the surface has not changed.

Applications

With the Cut Fill tool, you can do the following:

Identify regions of sediment erosion and deposition in a river valley.

Calculate the volumes and areas of surface material to be removed and areas to be filled

to level a site for building construction.

Identify areas that become frequently inundated with surface material during a mudslidein a study to locate safe areas of stable land for building homes.

Display

When the Cut Fill tool is executed, by default, a specialized renderer is applied to it that

highlights the locations of cut and of fill. The determinant is the attribute table of the output

raster and considers positive volume to be where material was cut (removed) and negative

volume where material was filled (added).

See the Illustrationof the tool documentation for an example.

Using Cut Fill for river morphologyUsing river morphology as an example to track the amount and location of erosion and

deposition in a river valley, a series of cross sections need to be taken through the valley and

surveyed on a regular basis to identify regions of sediment erosion and deposition.

The following graphics show a side profile of one of the cross-sections in the surface that has

experienced changes where material has been removed from some areas and added to

others.

The first graphic shows the surface in its original state:

The second graphic shows the surface after a period of time where erosional and depositional

forces have acted on it:

Before surface profile

ArcGIS 10.1

Locate topic

How Cut Fill works

Page 1 of 3How Cut Fill works

06-Oct-2013ms-its:c:\program files (x86)\arcgis\desktop10.1\help\spatial_analyst_toolbox.chm::/009...

8/13/2019 Cut Fill Tool

2/3

The third graphic shows how the Cut Fill tool identifies the areas where material has been

removed (cut) and where it has been gained (filled):

CalculationsThe output raster retains several properties of the change in its attribute table.

Edge-connected areas identified

First, from the upper-right corner, a sequential value is given to each unique edge-

connected area of cut, fill, or no change.

Different types of connectivity are demonstrated in the following graphic:

Volume calculation

For each of the cut/fill regions, the volume is calculated. For a single cell, the formula for

the volume is:

where:

For example, a particular cell has an initial z-value of 235 and a cell size of 10 meters. If

the location is excavated by 3 metres, the volume will be:

After surface profile

Cut/fill erosion and deposition

Cut/fill regions

Vol = (cell_area) * Z

Z = ZBefore

- ZAfter

Page 2 of 3How Cut Fill works

06-Oct-2013ms-its:c:\program files (x86)\arcgis\desktop10.1\help\spatial_analyst_toolbox.chm::/009...

8/13/2019 Cut Fill Tool

3/3

Area calculation

For each of the cut/fill regions, the area is also calculated. This is simply the number of cells

in the region (Count) multiplied by the cell size of the raster.

Attribute table

An example of the attribute table for the output raster is the following:

Positive values for volume indicate areas that have had material cut (removed), and negative

volume values are for areas that have had material filled (added).

Related TopicsAn overview of the Surface toolset

Cut Fill

Vol = (10m * 10m) * (235m - 232m)

= 100m2* 3m

= 300m3

Note: From the formula, in areas where material has been cut, thevolume will be positive (larger value- smaller value> 0).

When material was added, the volume will be negative

(smaller value- larger value< 0).

ObjectID Value Count Volume Area

0 1 55819 0.000 258107056

1 2 707 -137415060.250 3269168

2 3 65 -114913516.625 300560

3 4 810 1235057106.000 3745440

Copyright 1995-2012 Esri. All rights reserved.

Page 3 of 3How Cut Fill works

06-Oct-2013ms-its:c:\program files (x86)\arcgis\desktop10 1\help\spatial analyst toolbox chm::/009