3D Terrain Surface Reconstruction with Contour Data

In this paper, the shape of contour line is studied with geometry theory. It is concluded that the shape of neighbor contours change similarly. This similarity reflects the terrain surface changing within the neighbor contours. A new method for reconstruction of terrain surface is put forward with similarity rule. It bases on the theory of potential field in physics. The new method can make full use of the information in original data. It can overcome some shortcomings of traditional method. The experimental results show that the terrain surface reconstructed by the new method contains more detail information than that by traditional method, and it can reflect the real terrain variations within the neighbor contours.