Profilkurve

Profilkurve, or profile curve, is a curve that represents how a particular quantity changes along a defined reference line. In German-speaking technical fields it is commonly used to describe the vertical or cross-sectional shape of terrain, infrastructure, or objects along an alignment such as a road, railway, river, or pipeline. The term often refers to a longitudinal profile, showing elevation (or depth) as a function of distance along the line, but can also denote cross-sectional profiles at a given station.

Data for Profilkurven are derived from field measurements (surveying with GNSS or total stations), photogrammetry, or remote sensing, and from digital models such as digital elevation models or LiDAR point clouds. The resulting curve may be smoothed, resampled, or annotated with stations, gradients, or planned grades. Common processing steps include extracting sample points along the path, fitting a function to the data, and comparing existing and proposed profiles.

Applications are diverse. In civil engineering and transportation planning, longitudinal profiles are used to design earthworks, drainage, sight distances, and structural foundations. In geology and hydrology, profile curves help analyze terrain, watershed slopes, and flood risks. In computer-aided design and computer graphics, profile curves serve as inputs for extrusion, lofting, or animation paths, defining the silhouette or cross-sections of objects along a path.

Profilkurven thus provide a compact, quantitative representation of how a feature varies along a line, supporting design, analysis, and visualization across multiple disciplines.