1. Computertaugliche Alpen: digitale Geländemodelle der Schweiz seit 1965.
- Author
-
Frey, Felix
- Subjects
COMPUTERS ,DIGITAL elevation models ,COMPUTER simulation ,AERIAL photography ,TOPOGRAPHY ,MAPS - Abstract
Between 1965 and 1969, the Swiss Army created the digital terrain model Rimini. For the first time, the country's relief had been described for an electronic computer. In the following decades, digital terrain modeling became crucial for numerous applications. They were indispensable whenever a computer needed to know the country's surface structure, e. g., in artillery calculations. The path to obtaining such digital terrain models (DTMs) was subject to repeated changes. In particular, the question whether DTMs should be derived from topographic maps or aerial photographs caused several turnarounds. Furthermore, the history of DTMs shows that digital innovations had to blend into their analog environment to be successful. First, both DTMs created in Switzerland in the 20th century were derived from analog topographic maps. Therefore, they were inextricably linked to the graphic elevation models that can be found on paper maps. Second, while DTMs consisted of numbers only, their visual presentation relied on the well-established graphics human readers were accustomed to, such as contour lines and panoramic views. Thus, rather than being a radically new way of describing topography, digital spatial data in the 20th century entangled the electronic computer with the analog map. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2023
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