ArcFractal: An ArcGIS Add-In for Processing Geoscience Data Using Fractal/Multifractal Models

Abstract

Fractal and multifractal models, including the concentration-area (C–A) fractal model, spectrum-area (S–A) multifractal model, and local singularity analysis (LSA) method, are widely applied when processing various geoscience datasets. However, there is lack of ArcGIS-based software that contains these popular fractal and multifractal models. Such a situation hinders the popularization and application of fractal and multifractal models. ArcFractal, an easy-to-use ArcGIS add-in for processing geoscience data using fractal and multifractal models, is introduced in this paper. It is developed using C# based on ArcObject for.Net, ArcEngine 10.2, ZedGraph, and Visual Studio 2010. ArcFractal operations require a Windows 7 operating system and ArcGIS Desktop, version 10.2 or higher. The main application of ArcFractal is to determine geochemical threshold/baseline for separating geochemical patterns into anomalous and background components using the C–A, S–A, and LSA techniques. A case study from China Geochemical Baselines Project (CGB) was used to demonstrate the advantage of ArcFractal for processing geochemical exploration data.