An Adaptive Integration Model of Vector Polyline to DEM Data Based on Spherical Degeneration Quadtree Grids

Abstract. Traditional geometry-based approach can maintain the characteristics of vector data. However, complex interpolation calculations limit its applications in high resolution and multi-source spatial data integration at spherical scale in digital earth systems. To overcome this deficiency, an adaptive integration model of vector polyline and spherical DEM is presented. Firstly, Degenerate Quadtree Grid (DQG) which is one of the partition models for global discrete grids, is selected as a basic framework for the adaptive integration model. Secondly, a novel shift algorithm is put forward based on DQG proximity search. The main idea of shift algorithm is that the vector node in a DQG cell moves to the cell corner-point when the displayed area of the cell is smaller or equal to a pixel of screen in order to find a new vector polyline approximate to the original one, which avoids lots of interpolation calculations and achieves seamless integration. Detailed operation steps are elaborated and the complexity of algorithm is analyzed. Thirdly, a prototype system has been developed by using VC++ language and OpenGL 3D API. ASTER GDEM data and DCW roads data sets of Jiangxi province in China are selected to evaluate the performance. The result shows that time consumption of shift algorithm decreased about 76% than that of geometry-based approach. Analysis on the mean shift error from different dimensions has been implemented. In the end, the conclusions and future works in the integration of vector data and DEM based on discrete global grids are also given.