Extremhöhen

Extremhöhen (German for "extreme heights") denotes the highest and lowest elevation points within a defined geographic area, such as a country, region, watershed, or topographic map. The term is used in cartography, geography, mountaineering and environmental planning to identify landmark summits, depressions and other elevation extremes that characterize a landscape.

Determination of Extremhöhen depends on the vertical reference system chosen: mean sea level, geoid-based datums or ellipsoidal heights from GNSS. Traditional methods include spirit leveling and trigonometric surveying; modern approaches rely on satellite positioning, airborne LiDAR and digital elevation models (DEMs). Precision varies with method, resolution and datum transformations.

Extremhöhen are important for hazard assessment, infrastructure design, biodiversity and climate studies. High points influence local weather, water catchment and vegetation zones; low points can be sites of endorheic basins, wetlands or flood risk. In administrative contexts, listing Extremhöhen supports tourism, boundary descriptions and legal definitions of protected areas.

Challenges in reporting Extremhöhen include temporal changes (glacial retreat, subsidence, uplift), sea-level rise, mapping resolution limits, and differing datum conventions that can produce inconsistent values. Well-documented Extremhöhen entries specify the measurement method, datum and date to ensure comparability and reliability.