Terrain trees: a framework for representing, analyzing and visualizing triangulated terrains

作     者：Fellegara, Riccardo Iuricich, Federico Song, Yunting De Floriani, Leila 

作者机构：German Aerosp Ctr DLR Inst Software Technol Dept Software Space Syst & Interact Visualizat Braunschweig Germany Clemson Univ Sch Comp Clemson SC USA Univ Maryland Dept Geog Sci College Pk MD 20742 USA Univ Maryland College Pk MD 20742 USA 

出 版 物：《GEOINFORMATICA》 (地学信息)

年 卷 期：2023年第27卷第3期

页      面：525-564页

核心收录：

学科分类：07[理学] 0705[理学-地理学] 0812[工学-计算机科学与技术（可授工学、理学学位）] 

基　　金：US National Science Foundation [IIS-1910766] 

主　　题：Terrain modeling Triangulated irregular networks (TINs) Spatial indexes Terrain analysis Multivariate visualization 

摘      要：We propose a family of spatial data structures for the representation and processing of Triangulated Irregular Networks (TINs). We call such data structures Terrain trees. A Terrain tree combines a minimal encoding of the connectivity of the TIN with a hierarchical spatial index. Connectivity relations are extracted locally at run-time, within each leaf block of the hierarchy, based on specific application needs. Spatial queries are performed by exploring the hierarchical data structure. We present a new framework for terrain analysis based on Terrain trees. The framework, implemented in the Terrain trees library (TTL), contains algorithms for morphological features extraction, such as roughness and curvature, and for topology-based analysis of terrains. Moreover, it includes a technique for multivariate visualization, which enables the analysis of multiple scalar fields defined on the same terrain. To prove the effectiveness and scalability of such framework, we have compared the different Terrain trees against each other and also against the most compact state-of-the-art data structure for TINs. Comparisons are performed on storage and generation costs and on the efficiency in performing terrain analysis operations.