Chapter 1 - Digital Terrain Modeling: A Brief Historical Overview

Abstract

This chapter deals with the topography and the digital terrain modeling. Topography is one of the main factors controlling processes taking place in the near-surface layer of the planet. Topography is one of the soil-forming factors because it influences climatic and meteorological characteristics, which controls hydrological and thermal regimes of soils, prerequisites for gravity-driven overland and intrasoil lateral transport of water and other substances, and spatial distribution of vegetation cover. Before the 1990s, topographic maps were the main source of quantitative information on topography. They were analyzed using geomorphometric techniques to calculate manually morphometric variables and produce morphometric maps. Subsequent advances in computer, space, and geophysical technologies were responsible for the transition from conventional geomorphometry to digital terrain modeling. This was supported by the development of the physical and mathematical theory of the topographic surface in gravity. Digital terrain modeling is widely used to solve various multiscale problems of geomorphology, hydrology, remote sensing, soil science, geology, geophysics, geobotany, glaciology, oceanology, climatology, planetology, and other disciplines.