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Generate a 3D Mesh of a Geographic Area

From a digital elevation model to a 3D mesh

Mattia Gatti
TDS Archive
5 min readMar 14, 2023

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Photo by Planet Volumes on Unsplash

3D meshes can be used to represent geographic data such as terrain, buildings and other structures. This mesh can be useful for a variety of purposes, such as urban planning, environmental analysis or virtual reality simulations. However, the process of creating a 3D mesh of a geographical area is not always straightforward, but this guide covers all the necessary steps.

Introduction

To generate a 3D mesh of a given area, elevation data for that area is required. This data is stored in a Digital Elevation Model (DEM):

A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a type of geographical raster file that is used to represent surface reliefs

A DEM is basically a grid of elevation values. If you want more information, I discussed DEMs in a previous article.

Graphic visualization of a DEM. NSIDC, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

These models are created using one or a combination of the following techniques:

  • LiDAR — This method uses a laser scanner to measure the height of the terrain…

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TDS Archive
TDS Archive

Published in TDS Archive

An archive of data science, data analytics, data engineering, machine learning, and artificial intelligence writing from the former Towards Data Science Medium publication.

Mattia Gatti
Mattia Gatti

Written by Mattia Gatti

Currently doing research into AI Remote Sensing. Writing about Deep Learning and Geospatial Data Analysis.

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