It's amazing what information we can derive from the humble heightmap. In this project, I take some GIS and differential geometry concepts and apply them to a heightmap of Mt Saint Helens. A python script takes the heightmap as an input, and writes out a stack of masks which encode the slope gradient, curvature, sun exposure and soil moisture information. From these, we can build heuristics for where plants should grow, where avalanche debris should lie, etc.