Transects and cross-sections

library(blueterra)
library(terra)

Transects turn a bathymetric raster into cross-sectional profiles. They are useful for showing terraces, escarpments, slope breaks, and cross-shelf gradients that are not always obvious from cell-by-cell terrain metrics.

Data and Surface Orientation

bathy <- read_bathy(blueterra_example("hitw"))
rectangles <- terra::vect(blueterra_example("sampling_rectangles"))
hitw_rect <- rectangles[rectangles$site_id == "hitw", ]

prepared <- prepare_bathy(
  bathy,
  depth_range = c(-220, -25),
  smooth = TRUE
)

estimate_surface_orientation(prepared, hitw_rect)
#> [1] 94.61515

estimate_surface_orientation() converts local aspect into a representative bearing and a transect angle. Slope weighting emphasizes cells where orientation is better defined.

Automatic Transect Orientation

transects <- make_transects(
  hitw_rect,
  spacing = 75,
  bathy = prepared
)

transects[, c("transect_id", "angle_deg", "angle_source", "mean_aspect_deg")]
#> class       : SpatVector
#> geometry    : lines
#> dimensions  : 4, 4  (geometries, attributes)
#> extent      : 137512, 137762, 205591, 205891  (xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax)
#> coord. ref. : NAD83 / Puerto Rico & Virgin Is. (EPSG:32161)
#> names       : transect_id angle_deg angle_source mean_aspect_deg
#> type        :       <chr>     <num>        <chr>           <num>
#> values      :         1_1   94.6151      surface         175.385
#>                       1_2   94.6151      surface         175.385
#>                       1_3   94.6151      surface         175.385
#>               ...

plot_transects(
  prepared,
  transects,
  color_by = "transect_id",
  show_legend = FALSE,
  contour_interval = 25,
  title = "Terrain-Oriented Transects",
  subtitle = "Line angle estimated from local surface aspect"
)

Automatically oriented transects over hillshaded bathymetry.

Manual Angle Override

Manual angles remain useful when transects need to match survey design, a predefined grid, or a known field orientation.

manual_transects <- make_transects(
  hitw_rect,
  spacing = 75,
  angle = 45
)

manual_transects[, c("transect_id", "angle_deg", "angle_source")]
#> class       : SpatVector
#> geometry    : lines
#> dimensions  : 6, 3  (geometries, attributes)
#> extent      : 137475.2, 137775.2, 205591, 205891  (xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax)
#> coord. ref. : NAD83 / Puerto Rico & Virgin Is. (EPSG:32161)
#> names       : transect_id angle_deg angle_source
#> type        :       <chr>     <num>        <chr>
#> values      :         1_1        45       manual
#>                       1_2        45       manual
#>                       1_3        45       manual
#>               ...

Sampling Cross-Sections

sample_transects() extracts raster values at regular positions along each line. extract_cross_sections() is an alias for the same operation when the output is being used as a profile table.

samples <- sample_transects(transects, prepared, n = 12)
sections <- extract_cross_sections(transects, prepared, n = 12)

head(samples[, c("transect_id", "distance", "x", "y", "bathy_m")])
#> # A tibble: 6 × 5
#>   transect_id distance       x       y bathy_m
#>   <chr>          <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl>   <dbl>
#> 1 1_1              0   137762. 205591.   NaN  
#> 2 1_1             27.4 137760. 205618.   NaN  
#> 3 1_1             54.7 137758. 205646.   NaN  
#> 4 1_1             82.1 137755. 205673.  -197. 
#> 5 1_1            109.  137753. 205700.   -94.8
#> 6 1_1            137.  137751. 205727.   -71.8
summarize_cross_sections(samples, value_col = "bathy_m")
#> # A tibble: 4 × 6
#>   transect_id bathy_m_mean bathy_m_sd bathy_m_min bathy_m_max bathy_m_median
#>   <chr>              <dbl>      <dbl>       <dbl>       <dbl>          <dbl>
#> 1 1_1                -102.       66.1       -197.       -45.4          -83.3
#> 2 1_2                -108.       61.2       -192.       -50.7          -95.1
#> 3 1_3                -127.       71.9       -216.       -46.5         -107. 
#> 4 1_4                -110.       71.7       -209.       -37.3          -83.7
identical(names(samples), names(sections))
#> [1] TRUE

plot_cross_sections(
  samples,
  value_col = "bathy_m",
  show_legend = TRUE,
  mean_profile = TRUE,
  mean_profile_na_rm = TRUE,
  normalize_distance = FALSE,
  profile_direction = "top_to_bottom",
  title = "Bathymetric Cross-Sections",
  subtitle = "Profiles read from shallow to deep terrain"
)

Bathymetric cross-sections with bathy_m on the y-axis.

The value column is explicit. This matters because transect tables include numeric metadata such as width_m, height_m, angle_deg, and offset. The default profile direction places the top or shallow endpoint on the left and the bottom or deeper endpoint on the right. For negative-elevation bathymetry, that means profiles read from higher numeric values toward lower numeric values. Empty profile ends are trimmed and distance is reset to zero before plotting. The mean profile uses mean_profile_na_rm = TRUE by default, so it continues across the full available distance range instead of stopping where the shortest transect ends.

Single-Transect Profile

one <- samples[samples$transect_id == samples$transect_id[1], ]

plot_depth_profile(
  one,
  value_col = "bathy_m",
  profile_direction = "top_to_bottom",
  title = "Bathymetry Along One Transect"
)

Metric Profiles

The same plotting functions work with derived metrics. When both bathymetry and a metric are sampled together, plot_depth_profile() can draw the metric value against bathymetric elevation, with depth or elevation on the y-axis.

metrics <- derive_terrain(prepared, metrics = c("slope", "tri", "bpi"))
metric_samples <- sample_transects(
  transects,
  c(prepared, metrics[["slope_deg"]]),
  n = 25
)
metric_one <- metric_samples[metric_samples$transect_id == metric_samples$transect_id[1], ]

plot_depth_profile(
  metric_one,
  depth_col = "bathy_m",
  value_col = "slope_deg",
  profile_direction = "top_to_bottom",
  title = "Slope Along Depth"
)

Slope profile along one transect.

In this layout, the x-axis is the terrain metric and the y-axis is the bathymetric or elevation coordinate. If only one value column is supplied, plot_depth_profile() falls back to the distance-profile layout.