Gridding Contours · W. Randolph Franklin

Research archive · original page Research.GriddingContours · last recorded update 2009-11-14

Mike Gousie and I have new techniques for the classic problem of converting elevation contours to a grid. Our innovations reduce the terracing effect seen in many other methods, and produce a smoother, more realistic, result.

These techniques extend to generally fitting surfaces to points, and are used in some of our Alternate Terrain Reps.

Papers

Michael B. Gousie and Wm. Randolph Franklin. Augmenting grid-based contours to improve thin plate dem generation. Photogrammetric Engineering & Remote Sensing, 71(1):69–79, 2005.

Paper / file · Download BibTeX

BibTeX

@article{Gousie05,
    author = "Gousie, Michael B. and Franklin, Wm. Randolph",
    title = "Augmenting Grid-based Contours to Improve Thin Plate DEM Generation",
    journal = "Photogrammetric Engineering \\& Remote Sensing",
    volume = "71",
    number = "1",
    pages = "69-79",
    year = "2005",
    fulltext = "https://wrfranklin.org/p/106-pers05-thinplate.pdf",
    mykey = "terrain",
    href = "\bibhref{106-pers05-thinplate}"
}

Michael Gousie and W. Randolph Franklin. Converting elevation contours to a grid. In Eighth International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling, 647–656. Vancouver BC Canada, July 1998. Dept of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
Paper / file · Download BibTeX
BibTeX
```
@inproceedings{gousie98,
    author = "Gousie, Michael and Franklin, W. Randolph",
    title = "Converting Elevation Contours to a Grid",
    booktitle = "Eighth International Symposium on Spatial Data Handling",
    address = "Vancouver BC Canada",
    year = "1998",
    month = "July",
    pages = "647-656",
    publisher = "Dept of Geography, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada",
    fulltext = "https://wrfranklin.org/p/89-vancouver-sdh98-contour-gousie.pdf",
    customlinkslides = "https://wrfranklin.org/p/89-vancouver-sdh98-contour-gousie-talk.pdf",
    mykey = "terrain odetlap",
    href = "\bibhrefpt{89-vancouver-sdh98-contour-gousie}{89-vancouver-sdh98-contour-gousie-talk.pdf}"
}
```
Abstract: We present two new methods for approximating elevation data from contours to a grid. The first repeatedly interpolates new contour lines between the original ones. The second starts with any interpolated or approximated surface, determines its gradient lines, and does a Catmull-Rom spline interpolation along them to improve the elevations. We compare the new methods to a more classical thin-plate approximation on various data sets. The new methods appear visually smoother, with the undesirable terracing effect much reduced. Talk slides Old version of the Matlab code for the preliminary overdetermined Laplacian method.

Michael Gousie and W. Randolph Franklin. Constructing a DEM from grid-based data by computing intermediate contours. In Erik Hoel and Phillippe Rigaux, editors, GIS 2003: Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM International Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information Systems, 71–77. New Orleans, 2003.

Paper / file · Download BibTeX

BibTeX

@InProceedings{acmgis2003,
    author = "Gousie, Michael and Franklin, W. Randolph",
    editor = "Hoel, Erik and Rigaux, Phillippe",
    title = "Constructing a {DEM} from Grid-based Data by Computing Intermediate Contours",
    booktitle = "GIS 2003: Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM International Symposium on Advances in Geographic Information Systems",
    date = "November 7--8",
    address = "New Orleans",
    pages = "71-77",
    year = "2003",
    fulltext = "https://wrfranklin.org/p/99-acmgis03-intermed-contour.pdf",
    mykey = "terrain",
    href = "\bibhref{99-acmgis03-intermed-contour}"
}

PhD graduate

Michael B Gousie Contours to Digital Elevation Models: Grid-based Surface Reconstruction Methods, 1998.

Masters graduate

John Childs Development of A Two-Level Iterative Computational Method for Solution of the Franklin Approximation Algorithm for the Interpolation of Large Contour Line Data Sets, 2003.