Final published version
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Propagation of vertical and horizontal source data errors into a TIN with linear interpolation
AU - Fan, Lei
AU - Smethurst, Joel A.
AU - Atkinson, Peter M.
AU - Powrie, William
N1 - M1 - 7
PY - 2014/7
Y1 - 2014/7
N2 - Digital elevation models (DEMs) have been widely used for a range of applications and form the basis of many GIS-related tasks. An essential aspect of a DEM is its accuracy, which depends on a variety of factors, such as source data quality, interpolation methods, data sampling density and the surface topographical characteristics. In recent years, point measurements acquired directly from land surveying such as differential global positioning system and light detection and ranging have become increasingly popular. These topographical data points can be used as the source data for the creation of DEMs at a local or regional scale. The errors in point measurements can be estimated in some cases. The focus of this article is on how the errors in the source data propagate into DEMs. The interpolation method considered is a triangulated irregular network (TIN) with linear interpolation. Both horizontal and vertical errors in source data points are considered in this study. An analytical method is derived for the error propagation into any particular point of interest within a TIN model. The solution is validated using Monte Carlo simulations and survey data obtained from a terrestrial laser scanner.
AB - Digital elevation models (DEMs) have been widely used for a range of applications and form the basis of many GIS-related tasks. An essential aspect of a DEM is its accuracy, which depends on a variety of factors, such as source data quality, interpolation methods, data sampling density and the surface topographical characteristics. In recent years, point measurements acquired directly from land surveying such as differential global positioning system and light detection and ranging have become increasingly popular. These topographical data points can be used as the source data for the creation of DEMs at a local or regional scale. The errors in point measurements can be estimated in some cases. The focus of this article is on how the errors in the source data propagate into DEMs. The interpolation method considered is a triangulated irregular network (TIN) with linear interpolation. Both horizontal and vertical errors in source data points are considered in this study. An analytical method is derived for the error propagation into any particular point of interest within a TIN model. The solution is validated using Monte Carlo simulations and survey data obtained from a terrestrial laser scanner.
KW - error propagation
KW - DEM accuracy
KW - triangulated irregular network
KW - spatial interpolation
KW - topographical survey
U2 - 10.1080/13658816.2014.889299
DO - 10.1080/13658816.2014.889299
M3 - Journal article
VL - 28
SP - 1378
EP - 1400
JO - International Journal of Geographical Information Science
JF - International Journal of Geographical Information Science
SN - 1365-8816
IS - 7
ER -