Mask layer as shapefile

Optical Toolbox
#1

Dear All,
I am doing a quantitative flood analysis using Sentinel 1 data. I have selected those pixels which are inundated. Now, I would like to export this mask layer as either raster or ESRI shapefile. Is it possible?

#2

The export as ESRI shapefile is only possible if your mask has been created by using a geometry. In this case you can expand Vector Data group in the Product Explorer and right-click on the corresponding node and choose Geometry as Shapefile.
If the mask is created by an expression you can export the data to a text file.Right-click in the image an select Export Mask Pixels.
The last option is to turn the mask into a band via the Band Maths. Simply create a band with the mask name as expression. Afterwards you can export only this band by using the subset option in the export dialog.

#3

but, I am unable to convert the mask file as kml layer. The mask was created using expression.

#4

Ultimately, I need to export my mask layer to ESRI ArcMap software and overlay that onto a base map to see how much inundation has happened in a particular region. Can you help me to do this?

#5

I think exporting as raster data e.g. in GeoTIFF format will fit your needs. Just follow the last option I’ve explained.

#6

Thank you so much. The last option solved my problem.

#7

I have a closely related question, but I have not been able to get this solution to work.

I have a mask based on intensity greater than some value, so a maths type mask. I would like to be able to save this as a vector so that I can apply the mask in a graph processing chain.

I turned the mask into a band as you suggest. I used subset in the raster menu to save just this band.

I tried to export this band as a geoTIFF and also as a geoTIFF / bigTIFF. In both cases I just created an empty file.

What am I doing wrong, and is there any way to get this to be saved as a vector anyway?

Thanks.

1 Like
#8

Currently we have no means to turn a mask into vector data. We have this issue on our road map for future development. Maybe you can use GDAL to convert the data. See the comments in the above linked issue.

Regarding the empty files. Is the band also empty when you open it in SNAP?

#9

Thanks for the reply. I will look into the tools in the issue comments.

The band tries to open automatically in SNAP when I create it. This causes SNAP to hang and I can’t do anything, including exit. I’ve had to kill it with the task manager each time.