Digital Terrain Model for Germany

Colour-coded representation of the terrain height of the DGM-D
Source: Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy

The Bundesamt für Kartographie und Geodäsie (BKG) (Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy) operates together with the State Surveying Offices the ongoing revision of the uniform digital Terrain Model for Germany. This model is available for the whole of Germany on a full-coverage basis at the grid widths 10 m, 25 m, 200 m, and 1000 m and with terrain type-dependent height accuracy.

The supplies of revised or newly collected data of the Länder (states) enable continuous updating of the Digital Terrain Model (DTM), from which results a further improvement of the integrated dataset.

Updating of the DTM at the federal level comprises two main tasks:

1. Adjustment of the terrain model data at the state boundaries,
2. Transformation of the Länder datasets into a uniform grid width.

Larger inexplicable DTM differences appearing in the areas of overlap are verified on-site, whereby local areas are determined in terms of height, which replace obsolete data partly or fully. Differences of the DTMs at the state boundaries are mainly due to different entry dates. Further causes of these deviations lie in different data collection methods and very unequal grid widths.

Further future data updates by the Länder will be incorporated into the existing digital terrain model. For the time being, revision of the integrated dataset has been scheduled about once a year.