|Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and

Orthophotos
|Topics Covered

1) Basics of DEM, DTM and DSM and their uses

2) DEM Generation Process
3) Orthophotos and their application
4) Orthorectification Process
Basics of DEM, DTM and Generation of
DEM Generation Process Orthophotos and their Application
DSM Orthophotos

Digital Elevation Model (DEM)

Digital representation of elevations in a region

Digital Surface Model (DSM)

• Captures natural and built features on the Earth’s surface.
• A DSM is useful in 3D modeling for telecommunications, urban planning, and aviation

Digital Terrain Model (DTM)

• Bare-earth raster grid referenced to a vertical datum

• Obtained when non-ground points such as bridges and roads are filtered, you get a smooth digital elevation model.
• The built (power lines, buildings, and towers) and natural (trees and other types of vegetation) aren’t included in a DTM
• When you void vegetation and man-made features from elevation data, you generate a DEM. A bare-earth elevation model is
particularly useful in hydrology, soils, and land use planning:

TERRAIN STABILITY: Areas prone to avalanches are high slope areas with sparse vegetation. This is useful when planning a
highway or residential subdivision.

SOIL MAPPING: DEMs assist in mapping soils which is a function of elevation (as well as geology, time, and climate).
 DEM Generation Generation of
Basics of DEM, DTM and DSM Orthophotos and their Application
Process Orthophotos

How to capture Digital Elevation Models?

SATELLITE INTERFEROMETRY: Synthetic aperture radar such as Shuttle Radar Topography Mission uses two radar images from antennas
captured at the same time to create a DEM.

PHOTOGRAMMETRY: In aerial photography, photogrammetry uses photographs from at least two different vantage points. Similar to how your vision
works, it’s able to obtain depth and perspective because of the separate vantage points.

LiDAR: Using light, LiDAR measures reflected light that bounces off the ground and back to the sensor to obtain the elevation of the Earth’s surface.

DTM Project Block Bundle Block Triangulation

Generation Creation
Process using
LPS in ERDAS
Interior and Exterior
Orientations

Adding stereo
Images
DEM
Generation
 Orthophotos and their Orthorectification
Basics of DEM, DTM and DSM DEM Generation Process
Application Process

• An orthophoto is a photograph showing images of objects in their true

orthographic positions.
• Gives real-world coordinates by stretching, scaling, and skewing it into physical
space.
• Have uniform Scale
• Used to measure true distances, because it is an accurate representation of the
Earth's surface, having been adjusted for topographic relief, lens distortion, and
camera tilt
• Because they are planimetrically correct, orthophotos can be used as maps for
making direct measurements of distances, angles, positions, and areas without
making corrections for image displacements.
Orthophoto Mosaic
An orthophoto mosaic is a raster image made by merging orthophotos — aerial or
satellite photographs which have been transformed to correct for perspective so
that they appear to have been taken from vertically above at an infinite distance
Orthophoto Map
An orthophoto mosaic with additional marginal information like a title, north arrow,
scale bar and cartographical information is called an orthophoto map or image map
 Orthorectification
Basics of DEM, DTM and DSM DEM Generation Process Orthophotos and their Application
Process

The input data required for orthorectification

process is the original image, an appropriate
sensor model and a DTM or DEM.

The orthorectification process takes the raw digital

imagery and applies a DEM and triangulation
results to create an orthorectified image.

Relief displacement is corrected by taking each

pixel of a DEM and finding the equivalent position
in the satellite or aerial image. A brightness value is
determined for this location based on resampling
of the surrounding pixels.

The brightness value, elevation, and exterior

orientation information are used to calculate the
equivalent location in the ortho image file.
 Thank You!

Name: Bhavya Anand

Roll No. 2200005MSG
Course: Photogrammetry