3D Visualization of small scale spatial object based on Digital Elevation Model

The works on developing a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for small scale spatial objects is presented in this report. The motivation is to visualize a small spatial object as detail as possible. Here, small scale spatial object is defined as a spatial object that has a relatively small size such as a city, a volcano, or a lake. To accomplish this task, the research was conducted in three stages i.e. elevation data retrieval, 3D visualization and data enhancements, and the last is definition of object boundary. Elevation data is obtained from SRTM dataset that has 3 arc-second or approximately 90 meters data resolution. Data obtained from SRTM is then visualized in 3D, in which visualization is enriched with view angle setting. Results of visualization show that data enhancement is necessary to be developed to have better presentation of small-scale spatial object in 3D. This paper proposes several methods namely population and neighbors average, to enhance elevation dataset. Comparison among these methods is held to choose the best method to support 3D visualization. Different view angle setting is used in this stage. After having the best method to enhance elevation data set, next stage of the work is to develop spatial object boundary. This step aims to precisely view the object of interest. To develop object boundary, a set of points in term latitude and longitude coordinate is defined and connected by a set of edges computed using linear equation.