DEM generation by contour line dilation

A method is developed to generate digital elevation models by means of the dilation of contour lines stored in araster grid. An iterative procedure produces an extension of contour lines by applying alternative four-connectedand eight-connected erosions of the background until the produced surfaces become contiguous. The limits betweenthese surfaces correspond to a new family of intermediate contour lines that are added to the raster grid. Thisprocedure stops when no new contour lines can be generated. C subroutines are given. The algorithm is simple toapply and has a low computational cost.#1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.