DEMTheory.

doc 1

Digital Elevation Models – Specific Theory

introduction
The earths surface is a continuous phenomena. There are various ways of representing such
surfaces in digital form using a finite amount of storage.
Digital elevation models are used as a way of representing surfaces. A DEM is a quantitative
model of a topographic surface in digital form.
The term digital elevation model or DEM is frequently used to refer to any digital representation
of a topographic surface, however, most often it is used to refer specifically to a raster or regular
grid of spot heights.
Digital terrain model (DTM) is also used to refer to any digital representation of a topographic
surface.
The DEM is the simplest form of digital representation of topography and the most common.
The resolution, or the distance between adjacent grid points, is a critical parameter of any DEM.
The best resolution commonly available is 30 m.
The data sets should be visualized as continuous surfaces. The operators we will discuss here
are designed to work on any continuous surface e.g. map elevations, temperature gradients, or
cost surfaces.

Elevation Data
Elevation data is used to create DEMs. A figure showing contour data is shown below. The first
shows contour data as a set of lines which connect places of equal height.

Figure 1. Contour data

DEMTheory.doc 2

Figure 2 A DEM derived from the contours shown in Figure 1

Surface models are normally stored in either TIN or lattice Format
A TIN (Triangular Irregular Network) model is a continuous mesh of triangles. These vary in size
according to need based on the roughness of the terrain. Large triangles are sufficient for flat or
smoothly sloping country. Small triangles can model highly variable terrain. This makes TIN
modelling accurate and efficient. Slopes, aspects and run-off can be computed directly from TIN
models

Figure 3 A TIN model derived from the contours shown in Figure 1.

Lattice models of terrain are like other raster data models. Height values are kept in a regular
grid. This structure makes algorithms for modelling slope, aspect, run-off, visibility etc very
simple.
DEMTheory.doc 3

Figure 4 A DEM derived from the contours shown in Figure 1, shown with perspective

Uses of DEMs
DEMs can be used for:
?? determining attributes of terrain, such as elevation at any point, slope and aspect
?? finding features on the terrain, such as drainage basins and watersheds, drainage networks
and channels, peaks and pits and other landforms
?? modelling of hydrologic functions, energy flux and forest fires

Slope
The concept of measuring slope from a topographic map is a familiar one for most professionals
in the landscape planning/surveying professions. Slope is a measurement of how steep the
ground surface is. The steeper the surface the greater the slope. Slope is measured by
calculating the tangent of the surface. The tangent is calculated by dividing the vertical change
in elevation by the horizontal distance. If we view the surface in cross section we can visualize a
right angle triangle:

Fig. 1 slope
Slope is normally expressed in planning as a percent slope which is the tangent (slope)
multiplied by 100.
Percent Slope = Height / Base * 100
This form of expressing slope is common, though can be confusing since as 100% slope is
actually a 45 degree angle due to the fact that the height and base of a 45 degree angle are
equal and when divided always equals 1 and when multiplied by 100 equals 100%. In fact slope
percent can reach infinity as the slope approaches a vertical surface (the base distance
approaches 0). In practice this is impossible in a gridded database since the base is never less
that the width of a cell.
DEMTheory.doc 4

Another form of expressing slope is in degrees. To calculate degrees one takes the Arc Tangent
of the slope.
Degrees Slope = ArcTangent (Height / Base)
NB. ArcView calculates Slope as degrees
What is important to understand is that we can measure the slope of any surface, defined by
measures of topography, temperature, cost or other variables. We can take the slope of the
surface defined by air pressure measurements on a weather map to find where the pressure is
changing rapidly—this tells us the location of weather fronts. If we take the slope of a slope map
it tells us how fast slope is changing. This is equivalent to taking the second derivative of a
surface. On a topographic map this is a measure of surface roughness which can be an
important factor in estimating the cooling effects of breezes on micro-climates. (Rough surfaces
create turbulence and mixing of air masses of different temperatures. This creates better
cooling effects at the surface of the ground.) Using these examples it is useful consider slope as
a measure of change in a surface.
When measuring slope in a GIS the input map must be an interval map which represents a
surface as a set of continuous (floating point) values. The output is interval.
height base tangent percent degrees
(height/base) slope slope
1 100 0.01 1 0.57
5 100 0.05 5 2.86
10 100 0.1 10 5.71
25 100 0.25 25 14.03
50 100 0.5 50 26.56
100 100 1 100 45
150 100 1.5 150 56.30
200 100 2 200 63.43

Methods for calculating slope, aspect and hill shading in a raster GIS
Slope gradient
The gradient of slopes is calculated from a 3 x 3 cell window as shown below. The window
below represents the eight neighbouring elevations (Z) surrounding the cell at column i row j.
Figure 2 shows the window (kernel) used for computing derivatives of elevation matrices. This
3x3 window is successively moved over the map to give the derivatives slope and aspect.

Zi-1, j+1 Zi, j+1 Zi+1, j+1

Zi-1, j Zi, j Zi+1, j

Zi-1, j-1 Zi, j-1 Zi+1, j-1

Fig. 2 the window used for computing derivatives of elevation matrices
If average slope is requested, east west gradients are calculated as follows
?EW= [(Zi+1,j+1 + 2Zi+1,j + Zi+1,j-1) - (Zi-1,j+1 + 2Zi-1,j + Zi-1,j-1)]/8? X
The north-south gradient is calculated by
?NS = [(Zi+1,j+1 + 2Zi,j+1 + Zi-1,j+1) - (Zi+1,j-1 + 2Zi,j-1 + Zi-1,j-1)]/8?y
Where
?x = the east-west distance across the cell (cell width)
DEMTheory.doc 5

?y = the north-south distance across the cell (cell height)

Percent slope is calculated by:

Slope% = 100 * [(?EW)^2*(?NS)^2]^1/2
Degrees slope is calculated by
SlopeDegrees = ArcTangent[(?EW)^2 +(?NS)^2]^1/2

Normal GIS Options

Maximum slope is calculated from the maximum gradient of 8 neighbours.
NB. ArcView calculates Slope this way with the result in degrees
Maximum downhill slope is calculated from the maximum gradient of the cell or cells that are
less than or equal in elevation to the central cell. If there is no downhill neighbour the cell is
assigned a value of -1.

Aspect
Aspect is calculated using the north-south and east-west gradients as expressed in the above
equations using the following equation:
Aspect = ArcTangent (?EW/?NS)
The above equation is adjusted to reflect aspect in degrees in a range from 0 to 360. Where 0
represents a cell with no slope (skyward aspect) and the values from 1 to 360 represent
azimuths in clockwise degrees from north. North is 1, East is 90 degrees, South is 180 degrees
etc. Optionally, the result is then divided by 22.5 and converted to an integer to derive a set of
generalized solar azimuths range from 0 to 8.
DEMTheory.doc 6

0 - represents non-sloping areas;

1 - represents slopes facing the top edge of a map
2 - represents slopes facing the upper right corner of a map
3 - represents slopes facing the right edge of the map
4 - represents slopes facing the lower right corner of the map
5 - represents slopes facing the bottom edge of a map
6 - represents slopes facing the left corner of a map
7 - represents slopes facing the left edge of a map;
8 - represents slopes facing the upper left corner of a map

Hill Shading
Analytical hillshading is a technique for producing shaded relief maps automatically. Relief
shading is used to visually enhance the terrain features by simulating the appearance of the
effects of sunlight falling across the surface of the land. Hill Shading estimates surface
reflectance from the sun at any altitude and any azimuth. The reflectance is calculated in a
range from 0 to 100. The equation for the sun in the northwest sky with a 45 degree altitude is
as follows
Reflectance = 1/2 + (p’/2) / SQR(po2 + p’2) * 100
where: p’ = (po * ?EW + qo * d NS) / SQR(po2 + qo2)
po = 1 / SQR(2)
qo = -po
DEMTheory.doc 7

If you create a hill shade map with the light coming from the 'south' or bottom of the screen the
result is not so easily interpreted. It seems that even for people living in the northern
hemisphere their 'natural' interpretation of terrain is with the light from 'north'

Viewshed analysis
Viewshed analysis is the study of visibility between points on a terrain surface.
Viewshed analysis is used in visual impact assessment.
In viewshed analysis, the visibility of every cell from the observer cell (or numerous observer
cells) is computed.
Visibility is calculated by measuring the tangent from the observer's eye to each cell starting
from cells closest to the observer. As long as the tangent increases in the line of site from the
observer, the cell is visible. If the tangent decreases, the cell is not visible.
DEMTheory.doc 8

References
Burrough, P.A. (1986) Principles of Geographic Information Systems for Land Resource
Assessment. Monographs on Soil and Resources Survey No. 12, Oxford Science Publications,
New York.
Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) (1996) Working with the ArcView Spatial
Analyst.
Fisher, P.F. (1996) Extending the applicability of viewsheds in landscape planning.
Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing, 62: 297-302.
Hadrian, D.R., Bishop, I.D. and Mitcheltree, R. (1988) Automated mapping of visual impacts in
utility corridors. Landscape and Urban Planning, 16: 261-282.
Itami, R.M. and Rawlings, R.J. (1993) SAGE Introductory Guidebook. Digital Land Systems
Research.
Klinkenberg, B. (1990) Digital Elevation Models. National Centre for Geographic Information
Analysis Unit 38. URL: http://www.geog.ubc.ca/courses/klink/gis.notes/ncgia/u38.html#UNIT38