Digital Elevation Model Generalization constrained by Critical Points of the Terrain

Abstract

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are essential geomatic products in the study, management and administration of the territory. Uses and availability of high resolution data reveal a steady growth in recent decades allowing several analyses to qualify and quantify characteristics of the territory. Despite the increasing availability of the elevation data, territories studies require DEMs with coarser spatial resolution than the available one. This report evaluates the proposed generalized DEM method which retains terrain critical-points comparing to the one that applies a bilinear interpolation to change DEM resolution. Therefore, Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) project data of Maule Region- Chile (111x91 km) are used in the evaluation process. Results show that the generalization constrained by critical points method has a better performance in preserving the spatial position of the evaluated features within the generalized DEM scale.