3DHöhenmappe

3DHöhenmappe is a term used in German-speaking geospatial contexts to denote a digital representation of a terrain surface as a height field, stored on a regular grid. Each cell contains an elevation value, typically relative to a geoid or ellipsoid, forming a 3D surface when interpolated. It is commonly referred to as a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) or heightmap in English.

Applications of 3DHöhenmappe include terrain visualization, hydrological modeling, 3D city modeling, line-of-sight analyses, and as input to simulations and games. Data sources range from satellite missions (such as SRTM and ASTER) and airborne LiDAR to photogrammetric point clouds. Processing may involve resampling to a common resolution, filling voids, and projecting to a geographic coordinate system.

Formats commonly used for 3D heightmaps include GeoTIFF, ESRI ASCII Grid, ASCII XYZ, IMG, and other raster formats. In GIS workflows heightmaps can be converted to 3D meshes through triangulation or used directly in raster-based analyses.

Generation and processing involve measuring ground elevations and encoding them into a grid. After acquisition, steps include georeferencing, coordinate system assignment, normalization, interpolation for missing values, smoothing, and hillshading to aid visualization. Advanced techniques include multi-resolution pyramid representations and, in some cases, fusion of multiple sources (for example, LiDAR plus satellite data).

Limitations of heightmaps include representing bare-earth elevation and often excluding vegetation and built structures unless a digital surface model is used; resolution determines the level of detail and computational requirements. Accuracy depends on data source and processing methods.

See also: Digital elevation model, terrain analysis, GIS, LiDAR, photogrammetry.