Digital Terrain Models: A Tool for Establishing Reliable and Qualitative Environmental Control Processes

Abstract

Geospatial datasets representing our natural environment is widely used and applicable for various engineering, environmental, and social processes. Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) describing the terrain relief are among the most relevant sources for quantitative and qualitative environmental evaluation. Using simultaneously several geospatial datasets requires addressing the issue of data integration/comparison. This chapter introduces three novel algorithms for these tasks, which deal with the problem of achieving terrain continuity and completeness despite discrepancies that might exist among the different data sources. The main novelty of these algorithms is in using localized topographic structure of the terrain described by the DTMs, rather than trying to match whole datasets based solely on their coordinates. Several applications based on the suggested algorithms demonstrate their usefulness and applicability for establishing a reliable tool for environmental control processes.