Optimization of DEM Interpolation

Abstract

Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) are simply regular grids of elevation measurements over the land surface. DEMs are mainly extracted by applying the technique of stereo measurements on images available from photogrammetry and remote sensing. DEMs play a vital role in many scientific, environmental, engineering as well as military applications which need accurate and dense DEMs. However, generating a dense and accurate DEM comes with the price of spending both time and money on the field measurements. Fortunately, advanced space technology has provided much single (if not stereo) high resolution satellite imageries almost worldwide with the available global or local DEMs. This study included evaluating both DEM produced from topographic map and raster DEM after resolution enhancement by using single satellite image. According to the results of these experiments, a strategy was proposed for using the reflectance data to enhance the accuracy of DEM interpolation. The proposed the reflectance data models were implemented in a software package and successfully tested.