contoursinform

Contoursinform is a framework and data model for encoding, linking, and disseminating contour-based information about natural and built environments. It integrates conventional contour lines with semantic metadata to describe elevation, slope, aspect, land cover, hydrology, and temporal changes. The goal is to improve the discoverability and interoperability of contour data across geographic information systems (GIS), 3D visualization tools, and planning workflows.

The contoursinform model treats contour data as an information layer composed of geometry, attributes, and references to external data services. It emphasizes semantic tagging, using controlled vocabularies and standards to enable search and reasoning, and to ensure compatibility with existing GIS formats (such as GeoJSON and shapefiles) and metadata standards (such as ISO 19115).

Origins and development: The concept emerged in the early 2020s within the cartography and GIS research community as a response to the fragmented handling of contour information in maps, models, and simulations. It has since been discussed as a practical approach to unify contour data with associated contextual information.

Applications and use cases include environmental planning, flood risk modeling, transportation and urban design, and terrain-based simulations in gaming and virtual environments. Contoursinform supports temporal analyses by linking contour data with timestamps or scenario data, enabling comparisons across time and scenarios.

Limitations and considerations involve the need for standardization of vocabularies and licensing to realize cross-platform reuse, as well as computational demands for indexing and querying large, high-resolution contour datasets.