Terrain Parameters Directly From a Digital Terrain Model
Stanley H. Collins · GEOMATICA · 1975
A computer algorithm is developed to yield quantitative terrain data and to select special features for computer mapping. Values of depression storage, watershed area and earthwork volumes are deduced directly from a digital terrain model without interpolation or surface fitting. For map production, the algorithm signalizes contour points, watershed boundary points, stream points and storage crest points by a direct sorting process without assumption of continuity. The algorithm suggests a new approach to the use of DTMs in which all information is selected by the computer directly from the raw data, and points out new ways of defining physical features so that they can be quantified by fast sorting methods.