Aspect Discussion
Aspect identifies the down-slope direction of the maximum rate of change for the terrain surface. Aspect can be thought of as the slope direction. The aspect values are the compass directions of the aspect (0 - 360 degrees). North is 0 degrees and south is 180 degrees (ArcView™ 3.2 Help System).
Aspect is calculated as the azimuth direction of the normal vector of the terrain surface as it is projected to the XY plane (Berg 2000, Burrough, 1998).
See an Example of an Aspect Map
| Map of Aspect Values |
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References:
ArcView™ 3.2 Help System
Berg, Mark de, Marc van Kreveld, Mark Overmars, Otfried Schwarzkopf. Computational Geometry. Springer, 2nd Edition, 2000.
Burrough, Peter A., Rachael A. McDonnell. Principles of Geographic Information Systems. Chapter 8, "Spatial Analysis Using Continuous Fields". Pages 190-192. Oxford. 1998.