Disambiguating Flat Spots in Digital Elevation Models
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Date
2024
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
The Eurographics Association
Abstract
We consider Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) encoded as regular grids of discrete elevation data samples. When the terrain's slope is low relative to the dataset's vertical resolution, the DEM may contain flat spots: connected areas where all points share the same elevation. Flat spots can hinder certain analyses, such as topological characterization or drainage network computations. We discuss the application of Morse-Smale theory to grids and the disambiguation of flat spots. Specifically, we show how to characterize the topology of flat spots and symbolically perturb their elevation data to make the DEM compatible with Morse-Smale theory while preserving its topological properties. Our approach applies equivalently to three different surface models derived from the DEM grid: the step model, the bilinear model, and a piecewise-linear model based on the quincunx lattice.
Description
CCS Concepts: Computing methodologies->Shape analysis; Image processing; Theory of computation->Computational geometry
@inproceedings{10.2312:stag.20241342,
booktitle = {Smart Tools and Applications in Graphics - Eurographics Italian Chapter Conference},
editor = {Caputo, Ariel and Garro, Valeria and Giachetti, Andrea and Castellani, Umberto and Dulecha, Tinsae Gebrechristos},
title = {{Disambiguating Flat Spots in Digital Elevation Models}},
author = {Rocca, Luigi and Puppo, Enrico},
year = {2024},
publisher = {The Eurographics Association},
ISSN = {2617-4855},
ISBN = {978-3-03868-265-3},
DOI = {10.2312/stag.20241342}
}