A Fractal Method for Digital Elevation Model Construction and its Application to a Mountain Region
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1993
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Blackwell Science Ltd and the Eurographics Association
Abstract
This paper presents and discusses the results of a methodology for the construction of Digital Elevation Models (DEM), based on mathematical principles of fractal geometry. Classical approaches to DEM are founded on numerical methods of interpolation or approximation of data extracted from contour lines of standard topographic maps. Fractal geometry opens a new and innovative approach in which the irregularity, erraticity and self similarity of fractal structures mimics at best the typical behaviour of high mountain profiles. The adoption of fractal methods requires the identification of the fractal dimension D for a given data set. The determination of the fractal dimension D can be achieved applying some special mathematical method on finite set of samples. Different methods. for D estimation are presented. Once the fractal dimension is given, it is possible to reconstruct a surface relief using different fractal methods which interpolate the original set of elevation data. Our research has also investigated two different interpolation methods, fBm and IFS, both confirming that the fractal approach is very well suited for high relief terrain modeling. Photo realistic rendering of the computed DEM allows to appreciate the quality of the reconstruction through visual inspection.
Description
@article{10.1111:1467-8659.1250297,
journal = {Computer Graphics Forum},
title = {{A Fractal Method for Digital Elevation Model Construction and its Application to a Mountain Region}},
author = {Brivio, Pietro Alessandro and Marini, Daniele},
year = {1993},
publisher = {Blackwell Science Ltd and the Eurographics Association},
ISSN = {1467-8659},
DOI = {10.1111/1467-8659.1250297}
}