Flatirons, Inc.

Digital Terrain Modeling is the electronic process of representing topography in three dimensions. It is usually a process that takes place behind the scenes as an intermediate step of converting raw data gathered into data that is more useful for a particular purpose. An example of this would be in the preparation of a topographic map. The surveyor will gather data at particular spots chosen to accurately represent the field conditions. However, the finished product will need to represent information at places where raw field data is not actually gathered. By the process of digital terrain modeling, the information actually gathered can be converted to the information represented without loss of data integrity.

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The basic theory behind digital terrain modeling is that any three raw XYZ coordinates define a finite triangular surface, with each vertex of the triangle representing an actually measured data point. A large series of these finite surfaces, sharing common horizontal edges, can be linked together and used to interpolate the XYZ coordinate of any point, even though actual measurements have not been obtained at that point.