How to import ESRI grid into Matlab

Question

I have some ESRI grid data that I would like to import into Matlab. As a typical ESRI grid data I have the two folders with the *.adf files and *.dat, .nit and.dat files.

I would like to know how can I import the information stored in those files into Matlab.

Tank you all!

Answer 1

I would convert the GRID to ASCII format first using Raster to ASCII (Conversion). If you have many GRIDs, use the batch conversion by right-clicking on the tool and selecting "batch". Then you can easily bring in the ASCII files into MATLAB using arcgridread. Here's an example from Mathworks:

[Z,R] = arcgridread('MtWashington-ft.grd');
mapshow(Z,R,'DisplayType','surface');
xlabel('x (easting in meters)'); ylabel('y (northing in meters)')
demcmap(Z)

There is also a discussion here that may give you some ideas too.

Another option is to convert your ESRI grids to another format, such as a TIFF, and bring them into MATLAB using imread (source).