ИСТИНА

Relief representation by contours follows the height levels selected manually or using the automated classification of elevation data. However, it is impossible to capture all terrain features by a fixed number of height levels. Many surface forms are hidden between contours. There are geomorphological zones that are subject to high probability of such cases. The situation is typical for the foot of the mountains, where the steep slopes are adjacent to the flat planes. Topographic maps use arithmetic progression of height levels, which cannot represent both regions equally vividly without clutter or emptiness. Another common example is the representation of a flood plain, which is characterized by numerous subtle features between the main contours. The solution to the problem is to use additional contours. Additional contours are usually depicted by dashed lines and are drawn in areas with large distances between standard contours at the intermediate height. Additional contours are an essential element of terrain depiction and they are used by national mapping agencies on map series at all scales. Despite the relevance and expressive power of this graphical technique, no algorithms for the automated creation of additional contours have been developed to date, which was the motivation for launching this study. We have developed automated approach for the generation of additional contours to enhance the representation of relief where the distances between main contours are excessively large.