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PUBLICATIONS

Contour-to-Grid Interpolation with Nonlinear Finite Elements: A Feasibility Study

Published

Author(s)

Betty Mandel, Javier Bernal, Christoph J. Witzgall

Abstract

The U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories and the National Bureau of Standards investigated the computational feasibility of developing a contour-to-grid algorithm by: (l) sampling a large set of digitized cartographic contour data with a tolerance band technique, (2) its subsequent triangulation with a Voronoi (Delaunay,Thiessen) method and (3) the construction of an interpolating smooth synthetic surface from which grids can be generated at any given interval. This report presents a discussion on the results obtained.
Citation
U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories Report (ETL-0472)
Pub Type
Others

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Keywords

cartography, Clough-Tocher element, contour line, Delaunay diagram, digitized data, finite element method, line generalization, surface interpolation, synthetic surface, terrain modeling, Thiessen diagram, tolerance band, triangulation, Voronoi diagram

Citation

Mandel, B. , Bernal, J. and Witzgall, C. (1987), Contour-to-Grid Interpolation with Nonlinear Finite Elements: A Feasibility Study, U.S. Army Engineer Topographic Laboratories Report (ETL-0472), [online], https://tsapps.nist.gov/publication/get_pdf.cfm?pub_id=926887 (Accessed October 23, 2025)

Issues

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Created August 31, 1987, Updated October 12, 2021
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