DIGITAL TERRAIN MODELLING

ENGO 573
Digital Terrain
Modelling
2
THE UNI VERSI TY OF CALGARY
Geomatics Engineering Department
Digital Terrain Modelling
By
Naser El-Sheimy
Department of Geomatics Engineering
The University of Calgary
Tel: (403) 220 7587
E-mail: naser@ensu.ucalgary.ca
September 1999
Table of Contents
1. INTRODUCTION.................................1
1.1 Functional surfaces ........................................................................................................................................................1
1.2 Surface Continuity..........................................................................................................................................................2
1.3 Solid models....................................................................................................................................................................2
1.4 Surface smoothness.........................................................................................................................................................3
2. INTERPOLATION: WHAT AND WHY........................................................................................................................4
2.1 Methods for Interpolation...............................................................................................................................................6
2.2 Exact and Inexact Interpolators......................................................................................................................................6
3. GLOBAL FIT INTERPOLATION METHODS............................................................................................................6
3.1 Trend surface analysis.....................................................................................................................................................6
3.1.1 Problems with trend surfaces......7
3.1.2 Trend-Surface Analysis Mathematics:.....................................................................................................................8
3.1.3 Analysis of Variance (ANOVAR) Mathematics for Trend-Surface Regressions:.................................................11
3.1.4 Advantages/Disadvantages and When to use TSA:...............................................................................................13
4. LOCAL DETERMINISTIC METHODS FOR INTERPOLATION..........................................................................13
4.1 Tin interpolators............................................................................................................................................................15
4.1.1 LINEAR interpolation...............15
4.1.2 2nd Exact Fit Surface................17
4.1.3 Quintic interpolation.................17
4.2 Grid Interpolation.........................................................................................................................................................18
4.2.1 Nearest Neighbor ......................18
4.2.2 Linear Interpolation..................18
4.2.3 Bilinear interpolation ...............19
4.2.4 Cubic convolution ....................20
4.2.5 Inverse-Distance Mathematics:.20
5. GRIDDING .........................................22
5.1 Moving averaging gridding..........................................................................................................................................23
5.2 Linear projection gridding............................................................................................................................................24
6. SEARCH ALGORITHMS.................25
7. GRID RESAMPLING ........................27
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Surface Representation from
Point Data
This Chapter explains methods of creating discretized, continuous surfaces
for mapping the variation of elevation over space. Emphasis will be given to
gridding, spatial sampling strategies and methods of spatial prediction
including global methods of classifications and methods of local
deterministic interpolation methods.
1. Introduction
There is no ideal DEM, because the DEM generation techniques can not
capture the full complexity of a surface; there is always a sampling problem
and a representation problem. Various sampling schemes and
representations may lead to very different results both in the DEM itself and
especially in its derivatives. The accuracy of the individual elevations does
not necessary ensure the accuracy of derivatives such as slope maps.
There are two general ways to represent a surface: by a mathematical
function that expresses elevation as a function of the horizontal coordinates,
and by an image of the surface, explicitly giving the elevation at some set of
points, with no functional dependence with horizontal coordinates.
Before we go into details, we will first introduces some of the surface
characteristics based on ARC/INFO definitions:
1.1 Functional surfaces
Functional surfaces have the characteristic that they store a single z value,
as opposed to multiple z values as for the discontinuous surfaces, for any
given X,Y location. Probably the most common example of a functional
surface is terrestrial surfaces representing the Earths surface. Other
examples of terrestrial functional surfaces include bathymetric data and
water table depths. Functional surfaces can also be used to represent
statistical surfaces describing climatic and demographic data, concentration
of resources, and other biologic data. Functional surfaces can also be used
to represent mathematical surfaces based on arithmetic expressions such as
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Chapter
2
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Z = a + bX + cY. Functional surfaces are often referred to as 2.5-
dimensional surfaces.
1.2 Surface Continuity
Functional surfaces are considered to be continuous. That is, if you
approach a given x,y location on a functional surface from any direction, you
will get the same z value at the location. This can be contrasted with a
discontinuous surface, where different z values could be obtained depending
on the approach direction. An example of a discontinuous surface is a
vertical fault across the surface of the Earth.
Figure 1: Surface Continuity
A location at the top of a fault has one elevation, but immediately below this
point at the bottom of the fault you can observe another elevation. As you
can see, a model capable of storing a discontinuous surface must be able to
store more than one Z value for a given (X, Y) location.
1.3 Solid models
Functional surface models can be contrasted with solid models which are
true 3D models capable of storing multiple Z values for any given (X, Y)
location. Solid models are common in Computer Assisted Design (CAD),
engineering, and other applications representing solid objects.
Examples of objects suited to solid modeling are machine parts, highway
structures, buildings, and other objects placed on the Earths surface. In
some cases it is possible to represent some three-dimensional objects such
as faults and buildings on a functional surface by slightly offsetting the
duplicate (X,Y) coordinates.
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Z1
Z2
Z value ?
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1.4 Surface smoothness
Smoothness can be described in terms of the perpendicular to the slope of
the surface. Mathematically, this vector is referred to as the normal to the
first derivative. In addition to being continuous, a smooth surface has the
additional property, that regardless of the direction from which you
approach a given point on the surface, the normal is constant.
Two surfaces with different levels of smoothness are shown below. The first
surface, represented by flat planar facets, is not smooth. The normal to the
surface is constant throughout the extent of an individual facet. However,
as the normal crosses an edge separating two adjacent facets, the normal
abruptly changes.
Figure 2: Surface normals change abruptly when crossing facets.
Figure 3: Surface normals on a smooth surface do not change abruptly.
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Contrast the surface on the top with the smooth surface on the bottom. The
normal to the surface varies continuously across the surface. The normal
does not change abruptly as it crosses an edge in the surface.
Terrain surfaces vary in smoothness. Geologically young terrain typically
have sharp ridges and valleys, in contrast to older terrain which have been
smoothed by prolonged exposure to erosion forces. Statistical surfaces such
as a rainfall or air temperature surface are generally smooth.
2. Interpolation: What and Why
The word Interpolation comes from the Latin words "inter" means
between and "polire" means refine.
Interpolation = Refining by putting in between.
Interpolation is the process of predicting the value of attributes at
unsampled sites from measurements made at point locations within the
same area or region. Predicting the value of an attribute at sites out side the
are covered by existing observations is called extrapolation.
Interpolation is used to convert data from point observations to continuos
fields so that the spatial patterns by these measurements can be compared
with the spatial pattern of other spatial entities. Interpolation is necessary
when (Burrough and McDonnell, 1998),
The discretized surface has a different level of resolution, cell size or
orientation from that required. For example, the conversion of scanned
data (satellite images, scanned aerial photographs) from one gridded
tessellation with one given size and/or orientation to another. This
process is known generally as convolution.
A continuous surface is represented by data model that is different from
required. For example, the transformation of continuous surface from one
kind of tessellation to another (e.g. Irregular data to grid).
The data we have do not cover the domain of interest completely. For
example, the conversion of discretized data to continuous surfaces.
To construct the DTM, we need the estimation of elevation for each point of
the grid. To do this, we need to know first whether the point is exactly at a
point where the sampling data is available, or between the sampling points.
In the first case, the elevation can be taken directly from the database (or
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original observation), while in the second case, some method for estimating
elevation need to be used. One of such methods is called interpolation.
In digital terrain modelling, interpolation is mainly used for the following
operations:
Computation of elevation (Z) at single point locations;
Computation of elevation (Z) of a rectangular grid from original
sampling points (so-called gridding);
Computation of locations (X,Y) of points along contours (in contour
interpolation); and
Densification or coarsening of rectangular grids (so-called
resampling).
Abundant literature exists on methods for interpolation of DTM, some of
these interpolation algorithms will be discussed in the next sections. Some
characteristics and peculiarities of DTM interpolation from topographic
samples can be listed as follows:
There is no 'best' interpolation algorithm that is clearly superior to all
others and appropriate for all applications;
The quality of the resulting DTM is determined by the distribution and
accuracy of the original data points, and the adequacy of the
underlying interpolation model (i.e. a hypothesis about the behaviour
of the terrain surface);
The most important criteria for selecting a DTM interpolation method
are the degree to which (1) structural features can be taken into
account, and (2) the interpolation function can be adapted to the
varying terrain character;
Suitable interpolation algorithms must adapt to the character of data
elements (type, accuracy, importance, etc.) as well as the context (i.e.
distribution of data elements).
Other criteria that may influence the selection of a particular method
are the degree of accuracy desired and the computational effort
involved.
The two general classes of techniques for estimating a regular grid of points
on a surface from scattered observations are methods called "global fit" and
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"local fit." As the name suggests, global-fit procedures calculate a single
function describing a surface that covers the entire map area. The function
is evaluated to obtain values at the grid nodes. In contrast, local-fit
procedures estimate the surface at successive nodes in the grid using only a
selection of the nearest data points.
2.1 Methods for Interpolation
The two general classes of techniques for estimating the elevation of points
on a surface from scattered and regular observations are methods called
"global fit" and "local fit." As the name suggests, global-fit procedures
calculate a single function describing a surface that covers the entire map
area. The function is evaluated to obtain values at the grid nodes. In
contrast, local-fit procedures estimate the surface at successive nodes in the
grid using only a selection of the nearest data points.
2.2 Exact and Inexact Interpolators
An interpolation method that estimates a value of an elevation at a sample
points which are identical to that measured is called an exact interpolator.
This is the ideal situation, because it is only at the data we have direct
knowledge of the elevation in question. All other methods are inexact
interpolators. The statistics differences (absolute and squared) between
measured and estimated values at data points are often used an indicator of
the quality of an inexact interpolator.
Terminology: through this course we shall use the following:
Z X Y
i i i
( , )
: The measured elevation at point (Xi, Yi)
Z X Y
i i i
^
( , )
: The estimate elevation at point (Xi, Yi)
3. Global Fit Interpolation Methods
3.1 Trend surface analysis
Trend surface analysis is the most widely used global surface-fitting
procedure. The mapped data are approximated by a polynomial expansion
of the geographic coordinates of the control points, and the coefficients of
the polynomial function are found by the method of least squares, insuring
that the sum of the squared deviations from the trend surface is a minimum.
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Each original observation is considered to be the sum of a deterministic
polynomial function of the geographic coordinates plus a random error.
The polynomial can be expanded to any desired degree, although there are
computational limits because of rounding error. The unknown coefficients
are found by solving a set of simultaneous linear equations which include
the sums of powers and cross products of the X, Y, and Z values. Once the
coefficients have been estimated, the polynomial function can be evaluated
at any point within the map area. It is a simple matter to create a grid
matrix of values by substituting the coordinates of the grid nodes into the
polynomial and calculating an estimate of the surface for each node.
Because of the least-squares fitting procedure, no other polynomial equation
of the same degree can provide a better approximation of the data.
Figure 4: Principle of Trend Surface, A surface = trend + residuals
3.1.1 Problems with trend surfaces
There are a number of disadvantages to a global fit procedure. The most
obvious of these is the extreme simplicity in form of a polynomial surface as
compared to most natural surfaces. A first-degree polynomial trend surface
is a plane. A second-degree surface may have only one maximum or
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+
Trend
Residuals
Surface
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
minimum. In general, the number of possible inflections in a polynomial
surface is one less than the number of coefficients in the trend surface
equation. As a consequence, a trend surface generally cannot pass through
the data points, but rather has the characteristics of an average.
Polynomial trend surfaces also have an unfortunate tendency to accelerate
without limit to higher or lower values in areas where there are no control
points, such as along the edges of maps. All surface estimation procedures
have difficulty extrapolating beyond the area of data control, but trend
surfaces seem especially prone to the generation of seriously exaggerated
estimates.
Computational difficulties may be encountered if a very high degree
polynomial trend surface is fitted. This requires the solution of a large
number of simultaneous equations whose elements may consist of
extremely large numbers. The matrix solution may become unstable, or
rounding errors may result in erroneous trend surface coefficients.
Nevertheless, trend surfaces are appropriate for estimating a grid matrix in
certain circumstances. If the raw data are statistical in nature, with perhaps
more than one value at an observation point, trend surfaces provide
statistically optimal estimates of a linear model that describes their spatial
distribution.
3.1.2 Trend-Surface Analysis Mathematics:
Trend-surface analysis is different than local estimation techniques which try
to estimate "local" features; trend-surface analysis is a mathematical
method used to separate "regional" from "local" fluctuations (Davis, 1973).
What is defined as "local" and "regional" is also often subjective and a
function of scale, and the regional trend may vary with scale. The use of
trend analysis allows observed data points to be divided into these two
components. A trend can be defined by three components (Davis, 1973):
1. It is based of geographic coordinates; i.e. the distribution of material
properties can be considered to be a function of location.
2. The trend is a linear function. That is, it has the form:
Z x y a a X a Y ( , ) ........ + + +
0 1 2
Where Z(X,Y) is the data value at the described location, the a's are
coefficients, and X and Y are combinations of geographic location.
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3. The optimum trend, or linear function, must minimize the squared
deviations from the trend.
For the purpose of illustration, consider the set of points (X, Z) in Figure
5. These may be separated into "regional" and "local" components into a
variety of ways, 1st order (Figure 5.b), 2nd order (Figure 5.c), or 3rd
order (Figure 5.d).
Figure 5: Example of trend surface in 2D (After Davis, 1986)
Trend-surface analysis is basically a linear regression technique, but it is
applied to two- and three-dimensions instead of just fitting a line. A first
order linear trend surface equation has the form:
Z x y a a X a Y
o
( , ) + +
1 2
That is, an observation, with a value Z, can be described as a linear function
of a constant value (a
0
) related to the data set mean, and east-west (a
1
),
and north-south (a
2
) components (Davis, 1986). To solve for these three
unknowns, three normal equations are available:
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A. Original Surface
D. 3
rd
Order Trend C. 2
nd
Order Trend
B.1
st
Order Trend
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
Z x y n a a X a Y
i
i
n
o i
i
n
i
i
n
( , )


+ +
1
1
1
2
1
X Z x y a X a X a X Y
i i
i
n
o i
i
n
i
i
n
i i
i
n
( , )


+ +
1 1
1
2
1
2
1
Y Z x y a Y a Y X a Y
i i
i
n
o i
i
n
i i
i
n
i
i
n
( , )


+ +
1 1
1
1
2
2
1
Where n is the number of data points. Solving these equations
simultaneously will yield a "best-fit", defined by least-squares regression, for
a two-dimensional, first-order (a plane) trend surface. This can be rewritten
in matrix format:

n X Y
X X X Y
Y X Y Y
a
a
a
Z
X Z
Y Z
i
i
n
i
i
n
i
i
n
i
i
n
i i
i
n
i
i
n
i i
i
n
i
i
n
o
i
i
n
i i
i
n
i i
i
n

1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1

1
]
1
1
1

1
]
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
1 1
1
2
1 1
1 1
2
1
1
2
1
1
1
For second-order polynomial trend surfaces, the general equation is:
Z x y a a X a Y a X a XY a Y
o
( , ) + + + + +
1 2 3
2
4 5
2
Third-order polynomial tend surfaces:
Z x y a a X a Y
a X a XY a Y
a X a X Y a XY a Y
o
( , ) + + +
+ + +
+ + +
1 2
3
2
4 5
2
6
3
7
2
8
2
9
3
Forth-order, two-dimensional surfaces:
Z x y a a X a Y
a X a XY a Y
a X a X Y a XY a Y
a X a X Y a X Y a XY a Y
o
( , ) + + +
+ + +
+ + +
+ + + +
1 2
3
2
4 5
2
6
3
7
2
8
2
9
3
10
4
11
3
12
2 2
13
3
14
4
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3.1.3 Analysis of Variance (ANOVAR) Mathematics for Trend-
Surface Regressions:
Having obtained the coefficients of trend surface, we can now calculate
the expected or trend values,
Z X Y
i i i
^
( , )
, at any location (X, Y). A trend-
surface of a given order can be fit to any set of data, but that does not
mean that it is a meaningful or worthwhile model. Each of the terms in
the trend- surface polynomial equation has an associated error, and the
trend-surface itself is only used to estimate the "regional" trend. The
"local" fluctuations can be considered to be errors in the trend-surface
regression estimate. To evaluate the "worthiness" of the trend-surface
several terms must be calculated, in particular the total variation as sum
of squares of the dependent variable, Z:
Total Sum of Squares =
SS Z
Z
n
T

2
2
( )
For the estimated values,
Z X Y
i i i
^
( , )
, we can calculate the sum of squares
due to residuals or deviation from the trend:
Regression Sum of Squares =
SS Z
Z
n
R

^
^
( )
2 2
The difference between these gives the sum of squares due to residuals
or deviations from the trend:
Error Sum of Squares =
SS SS SS Z Z
D T R i i

( )
^
2
Now, the percentage of goodness-of-fit of the trend is given by:
R
SS
SS
R
D
2
%
and Multiple Correlation Coefficient is
R R
2
The significance of a trend surface may be tested by performing an Analysis
of Variance (ANOVA), which is the process of separating the total variation of
a set of observations into components associated with defined sources of
variation. This has been done by dividing the total variation of Z into two
components, the trend (regression) and the residuals (deviations). The
degrees of freedom associated with the total variation in a trend analysis is
(n-1), where n is the number of observations. The degrees of freedom
associated with the regression is m, where m is the number of coefficients in
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the polynomial fit to the data not including the constant term (a
0
). Degrees
of freedom for deviations equal to difference between both, i.e. (n-m-1).
The mean squares are found by dividing the various sums of squares by the
appropriate degrees of freedom, which is:
Variance of SS
R
= Variance of the regression function about its mean =
MS
SS
m
R
R

Variance of SS
D
= = Variance about the regression function =
MS
SS
n m
D
D

1
Variance of SS
T
= = Variance of the total variation MS
SS
n
T
T

1
A test statistic used to define the "worth" of the regression =
F
MS
MS
statistic
R
D

In a general test of a trend-surface equation, the ratio of interest is that

between variance due to regression (trend) and variance due to residuals
(deviations). A test statistic used to define the "worth" of the regression. If
the regression is significant, the deviation about the regression will be small
compared to the variance of the regression itself.
The F
statistic
is used with the F-test to determine if the group of trend-surface
coefficients are significantly different than zero; i.e. the regression effect is
not significantly different from the random effect of the data. In formal
statistical terms, the F-test for significance of fit tests the hypothesis (H0)
and alternative (H1):
H a a a b
H a a a b
m
m
0 1 2 3
0 1 2 3
0
0
: .............
: , , ,......................,

The hypothesis tested is that the partial regression coefficients equal zero,
i.e. there is no regression. If the computed F value exceeds the table value
of F (Critical values for F for v1 = m and v2= m-n-1 Degrees of Freedom and
Level of Significance e.g. 5.0% ( = 0.05) ) the NULL hypothesis is rejected
and the alternative is accepted, i.e. all the coefficients in the regression are
significant and the regression is worthwhile.
In addition to the problems of getting a "good" fit for the trend surface,
there are a number of pit-falls to the technique (Davis, 1986):
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1. There must be adequate data control. The number of observations
should be much greater then the number of coefficients.
2. The spacing of the observation points is important. It can affect the
size and resolution of features seen. Clustering can cause problems or
bias. The distribution can affect the shape of the surface.
3. There are problems near boundaries. The surface can "blow-up" in the
corners. For this reason it is important to have a buffer around the
area of concern. It amounts to a problem of interpolating between
data to one of extrapolating beyond data observations.
3.1.4 Advantages/Disadvantages and When to use TSA:
Advantages:
Unique surface generated
Easy to program
Same surface estimated regardless of orientation of reference
geographic
Calculation time for low order surfaces is low
Disadvantages:
Statistical assumptions of the model are rarely met in practice
Local Anomalies can not be seen on contour maps of low order
polynomials (but can be seen on contour maps of residuals)
The surfaces are highly susceptible edge effects
Difficulty to ascribe a physical meaning to complex higher order
polynomial
When to use TSA:
As a pre-processor to remove regional trend prior to kriging or IDW
Generating data in sparse data areas
4. Local Deterministic Methods for Interpolation
Global methods presented so far have imposed external, global spatial
structures on the interpolation. Local variations have been considered as
random, unstructured noise. Intuitively, this is not sensible as one expects to
the Z value of the interpolated points to be similar to the Z values measured
close by (Burrough and McDonnell, 1998). Local methods of interpolation
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are those methods which make use of the information from nearest data
points. This involves the following:
1. Defining a search area or neighborhood around the point to be
interpolated
2. Finding the data points within this neighborhood
3. Choosing a mathematical model to represent the variation over this
limited number of points
4. Evaluating it for the point of interest (most probably regular grid)
The following issues need to be addressed:
The kind of interpolation function to use
The size, shape, and orientation of the neighborhood
The number of data points
The distribution of the data points: regular grid, irregularly distributed
or TIN
The possible incorporation of external information on trends or
different domains.
We will examine all these points in terms of different interpolation functions.
These functions will be subdivided as follows:
1. Interpolation from TIN data
Linear Interpolation
2
nd
Exact Fitted Surface Interpolation
Quintic Interpolation
2. Interpolation from grid/irregular data
Nearest neighbor assignment
Linear Interpolation
Bilinear interpolation
Cubic convolution
Inverse distance weighting (IDW)
Optimal functions using geostatistics (Kriging)
All these methods smooth the data to some degree in that they compute
some kind of average value within a window. All the methods, except Kriging
which will be discussed in Chapter 3, are examined below.
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4.1 Tin interpolators
Tin interpolators make use of the fact that the data is already stored in a TIN
structures (see Chapter 5). Three interpolators are used for TIN surface
models: Linear, 2
nd
exact fit surface and bivariate quintic. All the three
interpolation methods honor the Z values at the triangle nodes (i.e., both
surfaces pass through all of the data points used to create the TIN). If you
were to sample a linear, 2
nd
exact fitted or quintic surface at exactly the
same (x, y) location as a point used to construct the TIN, the interpolated Z
value would be the same as the input value (ARC/INFO, 1998).
4.1.1 LINEAR interpolation
The liner interpolation method considers the surface as a continuous faceted
surface formed by triangles. The normal, or perpendicular to the slope of
the surface, is constant throughout the extent of each triangle facet.
However, as you cross over an edge separating two adjacent triangles, the
normal changes abruptly to that of the next triangle.
In linear interpolation, the surface value to be interpolated is calculated
based solely on the Z values for the nodes of the triangle within which the
point lies. If breaklines are present in the TIN, they do not influence
interpolation because linear interpolation is not affected by the surface
behavior of adjacent triangles.
The surface value at the certain point is obtained by intersecting a vertical
line with the plane defined by the three nodes of the triangle. The
generalized equation for linear interpolation of a point (X, Y, Z) in a triangle
facet is:
Ax + By + Cz + D = 0
where A, B, C, and D are constants determined by the coordinates of the
triangles three nodes.
Equation of plan using vector algebra:
Given: The position vectors
a b c

, ,
of the three non-collinear nodes (A ,B,C)
of a TIN triangle.
Required: the vector equation of the plane passing through the three nodes.
This can be simply obtained from the mixed products of vectors
( ), ( ), ( ) b a c a and p a


, that is:
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( ) ( ) ( ) b a x c a p a

0
.Where
p

is the position vector of a point P(X,Y,Z) which belong to the

plane ABC. The graphical presentation of the last formula is shown in Figure
6.
Figure 6: Vector Representation of a Plane Through Three Points
Note:
( ) a x b c
a a a
b b b
c c c
x y z
x y z
x y z


Mathematical Formulation
General formulation:
Z x y a a X a Y
o
( , ) + +
1 2

Computational Procedures:
1. Search for the triangle the intermediate point (X, Y) falls into, i.e. get (X
1
,
Y
1
, Z
1
), (X
2
, Y
2
, Z
2
), and (X
3
, Y
3
, Z
3
)
2. Solve the set of equations F = A x
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16
C
A
B
P
Y
X
Z
a
c
b
p
b-a
(b-a) x (c-a)
p-a
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
F
Z
Z
Z
A
X Y
X Y
X Y
x
a
a
a

1
]
1
1
1

1
]
1
1
1

1
]
1
1
1
1
2
3
1 1
2 2
3 3
0
1
2
1
1
1

3. Estimate (Z) for the location (X, Y)
[ ] Z X Y X Y
a
a
a
( , )

1
]
1
1
1
1
0
1
2
Linear Interpolation produces continuous but not smooth
surface
4.1.2 2
nd
Exact Fit Surface
The assumption that the triangles represent tilted flat plates obviously
results in a very crude approximation. A better approximation can be
achieved using curved or bent triangle plates, particularly if these can be
these can be made to join smoothly across the edges of the triangles.
Several procedures can have been used for this purpose (David, 1986). One
of the earliest involved finding the three neighbors closest to the faces of
the triangle, then fitting a second-degree polynomial trend surface to these
and to the points at the vertices of the triangle. A 2
nd
degree trend surface is
defined by six coefficients. This means that the fitted surface is exactly
passing through all six points. The equation can be then used to estimate
series of locations having a specified elevation. Contour maps derived from
this method will be curved rather than straight lines as in the linear
interpolation method.
Even though adjacent plates are fitted using common points, their trend
surfaces will not coincide exactly along lines of overlap. This means there
may be abrupt changes in direction crossing from one triangular plate to
another.
4.1.3 Quintic interpolation
Similar to the linear and 2
nd
degree exact fit surface interpolation methods,
quintic interpolation considers the surface model to be continuous. In
addition, quintic interpolation also considers the surface model to be
smooth, that is, the normal to the surface varies continuously within each
triangle. In addition, there are no abrupt changes in the normal as it crosses
an edge between triangles. This smooth characteristic is accomplished by
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N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
considering the geometry of the neighboring triangles when interpolating
the z value of a point in a tin triangle.
Quintic interpolation employs a bivariate 5
th
degree polynomial in x and y.
The generalized equation for quintic interpolation of the z value of a point on
a surface is (H. Akima, 1978):
Z X Y a X Y
ij
i j
j
i
i
( , )

0
5
0
5
There are 21 coefficients to be determined. The values of the function and
its first-order and second-order partial derivatives are given at each node of
the triangle, yielding 18 coefficients. The three remaining coefficients are
determined by considering the surface to be both smooth and continuous in
the direction perpendicular to the three triangle edges.
Note:
The derivative of a polynomial of degree n is a polynomial
of degree n-1. The 2
nd
derivative of a polynomial of degree
n is a polynomial of degree n-2, and so on.
4.2 Grid Interpolation
4.2.1 Nearest Neighbor
Nearest neighbor assignment assigns the value of the nearest mesh point in
the input lattice or grid to the output mesh point or grid cell. No actual
interpolation is performed based on values of neighboring mesh points. For
example, a value 2 in the input grid will always be the value 2; it will never
be 2.2 or 2.3. Nearest neighbor assignment is the preferred resampling
technique for categorical data since it does not alter the value of the input
cells. It is not usually used for surface interpolation.
4.2.2 Linear Interpolation
In 1-D case two adjacent reference points values are connected by a straight
line which is used for interpolation. In case of a 2-D space, three reference
points are used to define a plane (as in the TIN linear interpolation), which
serves as interpolation function on the respective grid. The whole
interpolation domain is subdivided into triangles, the corners at the
reference points.
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N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
Computational Procedures, See Figure 7:
1. Search for the grid where the intermediate point (X, Y) falls into, i.e. get
(X
1
, Y
1
, Z
1
), (X
2
, Y
2
, Z
2
), and (X
3
, Y
3
, Z
3
), and (X
3
, Y
3
, Z
3
).
2. Affine transformation of the intermediate point
X
X X
X

1
_
and
Y
Y Y
Y

1
_
3. Determination of :

'

Otherwise
Y X

0
1
_ _

4. Evaluate the formula

Z X Y Z Z Z X Z Z Y Z Z Z X Z Z Y ( , ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )
_ _ _ _ _ _
+ +

'

+ + +

'

1 3 2 2 1 1 4 1 3 4
1
Figure 7: Linear Interpolation from Grids
Linear Interpolation produces continuous but not smooth
surface
4.2.3 Bilinear interpolation
Instead of dividing the girds into triangles, as in the linear interpolation,
bilinear interpolation take the grid mesh as basic unit to define a piecewise
polynomial function. A bilinear polynomial of the form;
Z X Y a X Y a a X a Y a XY a a X a Y a XY
ij
i j
j i
( , ) + + + + + +


0
1
0
1
00 10 01 11 0 1 2 3
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19
X
n
X
Y
i
j
X
1
Y
1
Y
n
= 1
= 0
=0
=1
X
Y
1
2 3
4
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
defined on every mesh will yield a surface which is continuous on the whole
domain, but not smooth (discontinuous first derivative)
Computational Procedures:
1. Search for the grid where the intermediate point (X, Y) falls into, i.e. get
(X
1
, Y
1
, Z
1
), (X
2
, Y
2
, Z
2
), and (X
3
, Y
3
, Z
3
), and (X
4
, Y
4
, Z
4
).
2. Affine transformation of the intermediate point
X
X X
X

1
_
and
Y
Y Y
Y

1
_
3. Evaluate the formula
_ _
4 3 2 1
_
1 2
_
1 4 1
_ _
) ( ) ( ) ( ) , ( Y X Z Z Z Z Y Z Z X Z Z Z Y X Z + + + +
Figure 8: Bilinear Interpolation
4.2.4 Cubic convolution
Cubic convolution calculates the output Z value using the values of the
sixteen nearest input mesh points. A cubic spline curve is fit horizontally
through each column of four points, and a final curve is fit vertically to the
four horizontal curves, through the data point location. Using a smooth
curve and a larger neighborhood gives cubic convolution a tendency to
smooth the data, and can in some cases result in output mesh point values
which are outside the range of values in the input lattice.
4.2.5 Inverse-Distance Mathematics:
The technique estimates the Z value at a point by weighting the
influence of nearby data the most, and more distant data the least. This
can be described mathematically by:
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20
X
Y
1
2
3
4 X
Y
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
Z X Y
Z
d
d
i
i
p
i
n
i
p
i
n
( , )

1
]
1
1

1
]
1
1

1
1
1
or
1 ) , (
i
With
i i
Z Y X Z
where Z(X,Y) is the estimated Z value at the location (X,Y), Z
i
is the Z
value at the grid location(X
i
, Y
i
), d
i
is the distance between the grid
location (X
i
, Y
i
) and point (X,Y), and p is the power to which the distance
is raised. The basis of this technique is that nearby data are most similar
to the actual field conditions at the grid location. Depending on the site
conditions the distance may be weighted in different ways. If p = 1, this
is a simple linear interpolation between points. Many people have found
that p = 2 produce better results. In this case, close points are heavily
weighted, and more distant point are lightly weighted (points are
weighted by 1 / d2). At other sites, p has been set to other powers and
yielded reasonable results.
Inverse-distance is a simple and effective way to estimate parameter
values at grid locations of unknown value. Beside the directness and
simplicity, however, inverse-distance techniques have a number of
shortcomings. Some of these are:
If a data point is coincident with a grid location, d = 0, a division by 0
occurs, unless it is treated specially with the following: condition:
if d
i
= 0, Z(X,Y) = Z
i
.
4. 2. 5. 1 WEI GHTI NG FUNCTI ONS
The data points (or the slopes at the points) used in the estimation
procedure are weighted according to the distances between the grid node
being estimated and the points. Figure 9shows four different weighting
functions. The four weighting functions decrease at increasing rates with
distance.
The weights that are assigned to the control points according to the
weighting function are adjusted to sum to 1.0. Therefore, the weighting
function actually assigns proportional weights and expresses the relative
Naser El-Sheimy
21
1/D
4
1/D

1/D
2
1/D
6
Distance
Weight
1
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
influence of each control point. A widely used version of the weighting
process assigns a function whose exact form depends upon the distance
from the location being estimated and the most distant point used in the
estimation. This inverse distance-squared weighting function is then scaled
so that it extends from one to zero over this distance.
Figure 9: Distance Weighting Functions
5. Gridding
Gridding is the estimation of values of the surface at a set of locations that
are arranged in a regular pattern which completely covers the mapped area.
In general, values of the surface are not known at these uniformly spaced
locations, and so must be estimated from the irregularly located control
points where values of the surface are known. The locations where
estimates are made are referred to as "grid points" or "grid nodes."
The grid nodes usually are arranged in a square pattern so the distance
between nodes in one direction is the same as the distance between them in
the perpendicular direction. In most commercial software, the spacing is
under user control, and is one of many parameters that must be chosen
before a surface can be gridded and mapped. The area enclosed by four grid
nodes is called a "grid cell." If a large size is chosen for the grid cells, the
resulting map will have low resolution and a coarse appearance, but can be
computed quickly. Conversely, if the grid cells are small in size, the contour
map will have a finer appearance, but will be more time consuming and
expensive to produce.
The estimation process involves three essential steps. First, the control
points must be sorted according to their geographic coordinates. Second,
from the sorted coordinates, the control points surrounding a grid node to
be estimated must be searched out. Third, the program must estimate the
value of that grid node by some mathematical function, as described in the
previous sections, of the values at these neighboring control points. Sorting
greatly affects the speed of operation, and hence the cost of using a
contouring program. However, this step has no effect on the accuracy of the
estimates. Both the search procedure and the mathematical function do
have significant effects on the form of the final map.
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N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
5.1 Moving averaging gridding
The most obvious function that can be used to estimate the value of a
surface at a specific grid node is simply to calculate an average of the
known values of the surface at nearby control points. In effect, this projects
all of the surrounding known values horizontally to the grid node location.
Then, a composite estimate is made by averaging these, usually weighting
the closest points more heavily than distant points. The resulting
mathematical model of the surface, and the corresponding contour map, will
have certain characteristics. The highest and lowest areas on the surface will
contain control points, and most grid nodes will have intermediate values,
since an average cannot be outside the range of the numbers from which it
is calculated. At grid nodes beyond the outermost control points, the grid
nodes must be estimated by extrapolation; their values will be close to those
of the nearest control points.
Figure 10: Steps in Computation of Grid Value using Moving Average
Figure 10 shows a series of observations; each point is characterized by its X
coordinate (east-west or across the page), its Y coordinate (north-south or
down the page), and its Z coordinate (the value to be mapped). On the
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23
12
13
11
12
10
11
16
18
15
14
15
17
12
13
11
12
10
11
16
18
15
14
15
17
13
11
12
10
11
15
14
11.1 12.3 13.3 15.1
10.9 13.1 13.8 15.7
10.8 12.6 14.3 16.2
11.4 12.3 63.3 17.6
(a) (b)
(c)
(d)
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
illustration, values of Z are noted beside each point. The observations may
be identified by numbering them sequentially as they are read by the
program, from 1 to i. Therefore, an original data point i has coordinates X(i)
in the east-west direction, Y(i) in the north-south direction, and value Z(i). In
(b), a regular grid of nodes has been superimposed on the map. These grid
nodes also are numbered sequentially from 1 to k. Grid node k has
coordinates X(k) and Y(k) and has an estimated elevation Z(k). To estimate
the grid node value Z(k) from the nearest n data points, these points must
be found and the distances between them and the node calculated. The
search procedure may be simple or elaborate. Assume that by some method
the n data points nearest to grid node k have been located. The distance
D(k) from observation i to grid node k is found by the Pythagorean equation
Having found the distances D(ik) to the nearest data points, the grid point
elevation Z is estimated from these. The completed grid with all values of Z
is shown in (d).
This type of algorithm is sometimes called a "moving average," because
each node in the grid is estimated as the average of values at control points
within a neighborhood that is "moved" from grid node to grid node. In effect,
values at the control points are projected horizontally to the location of the
grid node, where they are weighted and averaged.
5.2 Linear projection gridding
The linear projection gridding is a two-part procedure, in which a weighted
average of slopes projected from the nearest neighboring data points
around each grid node are used to estimate the value at the node.
Initially, the slope of the surface at every data point must be estimated. The
nearest n neighboring observations around a data point are found and each
is weighted inversely to its distance from the data point. A linear trend
surface is then fitted to these weighted observations. The constant term of
the fitted regression equation is adjusted so the plane passes exactly
through the data point. The slope of the trend surface is used as the local
dip. If at least five points cannot be found around the data point or if the set
of simultaneous equations for the fitted plane cannot be solved, the
coefficients of a global linear trend are used to estimate the local slope. The
slope coefficients are saved for each data point.
The second part of the algorithm estimates the value of the surface at the
grid nodes. A search procedure finds n nearest neighboring data points
around the node to be estimated. The X,Y coordinates of the grid node are
substituted into each of the local trend surface equations associated with
these data points, in effect projecting these local dipping planes to the
Naser El-Sheimy
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N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
location of the node. An average of these estimates is then calculated,
weighting each slope by the inverse of the distance between the grid node
and the data point associated with the slope. If a data point lies at or very
near a grid intersection, the value of the data point is used directly as the
value of the grid node.
The projection of slopes may be disadvantageous in some circumstances.
For example, the method may tend to create spurious highs or lows both in
areas of limited density of control points and along the edges of maps if
surface dips are projected from areas where there are tight clusters of
observations. Also, the two-phase algorithm obviously requires more time
for computation than simpler procedures.
Variants of the linear projection algorithm are among the most popular of
those used for constructing the mathematical model used in contouring.
These algorithms are especially good within areas that are densely
controlled by uniformly spaced data points. However, like the piecewise
linear least squares methods, they have the distressing habit of creating
extreme projections when used to estimate grid nodes beyond the
geographic limits of the data.
6. Search algorithms
One critical difference between various local-fit algorithms for interpolating
to a regular grid is the way in which "nearest neighbors" are defined and
found. Because some search techniques may be superior to others in certain
situations (primarily reflecting the arrangement of the data points), most
commercial software provides a variety of search procedures that may be
selected by the user. The simplest method finds the n nearest neighboring
data points, in a Euclidean distance sense, regardless of their angular
distribution around the grid node being estimated. This method is fast and
satisfactory if observations are distributed in a comparatively uniform
manner, but provides poor estimates if the data are closely spaced along
widely separated traverses.
An objection to a simple nearest neighbor search is that all the nearest
points may lie in a narrow wedge on one side of the grid node. The resulting
estimate of the node is essentially unconstrained, except in one direction.
This may be avoided by restricting the search in some way which ensures
that the control points are equitably distributed about the grid node being
estimated.
Naser El-Sheimy
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N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
Figure 11: Search Techniques those Locates N Nearest Neighbors around a
Grid Node
The simplest method that introduces a measure of radial is a quadrant
search. Some minimum number of control points must be taken from each
of the four quadrants around the grid node being calculated. An elaboration
on the quadrant search is an octant search, which introduces a further
constraint on the radial distribution of the points used in the estimating
equation. A specified number of control points must be found in each of the
45 degrees segments surrounding the grid node being estimated. This
search method is one of the more elegant procedures and is widely used in
commercial contouring programs.
These constrained search procedures require finding and testing more
neighboring control points than in a simple search, which increases the time
required. Most commercial software provides a number of different types of
search procedure which finds all points within a radius r of the point being
estimated. Estimates made using the other search procedures are based on
a fixed number of points collected at variable distances from the grid node;
this search algorithm uses a variable number of points found within a fixed
distance of the node.
Any constraints on the search for the nearest control points, such as a
quadrant or octant requirement, will obviously expand the size of the
neighborhood around the grid node being estimated. This occurs because
some nearby control points are likely to be passed over in favor of more
distant points in order to satisfy the requirement that only a few points may
be taken from a single sector. Unfortunately, the autocorrelation of a surface
decreases with increasing distance, so these more remote control points are
less closely related to the location being estimated. This means the estimate
Naser El-Sheimy
26
12
13
11
12
10
11
16
18
15
14
15
17
12
13
11
12
10
11
16
18
15
14
15
17 12 12
Quadrant Search
Octant Search
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
may be poorer than if a simple nearest neighbor search procedure were
used.
7. Grid Resampling
Resampling is the process of determining new values for grid cells in an
output grid that result from applying some geometric transformation to an
input grid. The input grid may be in a different coordinate system, at a
different resolution, or may be rotated with respect to the output grid.
Interpolation techniques, nearest neighbor assignment, bilinear
interpolation, cubic convolution, and IDW, discussed in previous Sections,
are usually used in the resampling process.
Resampling grids of different resolutions should be done when using grids of
different resolutions as input. The default resampling is to the coarsest
resolution of the input grids. This resampling on the fly uses the nearest
neighbor assignment as the resampling method. The following Figures
shows typical examples of when resampling is needed.
Naser El-Sheimy
27
Output Grid
Input Grid
Input Grid
Output Grid
N A S E R E L - S H E I M Y , 1 9 9 8
Figure 12: (a) Resampling when changing the grid size (b) Resampling when
rotating the grid plus changing the grid size.
Figure 13: Example of Nearest Neighbor Resampling
Naser El-Sheimy
28
References
1. Akima, H. (1978), " A Method of Bivariate Interpolation and Smooth Surface
Fitting For Irregularly Distributed Data Points", ACM Transactions on
Mathematical Software, Vol. 4, No.2, June 1978, pp. 148-159.
2. Davis, John, 1986, "Statistics and data analysis in geology", New York, Wiley,
2
nd
ed , 1986, (UofC Call # QE48.8 .D38 1986 )
3. ESRI, Inc. 1998, "Arc/Info v7.0.2 Manual", Redlands, CA: Environmental
Systems Research Institute
4. P.A. Burrough and McDonnell R, 1998, "Principles of geographical information
systems for land resources assessment", Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1998.
(UofC Call # HD108.15 .B87 1986)