Cognised existence: Elevation is the vertical distance of a point on the Earth’s surface above a datum. It determines where water flows, where floods reach, how much sun a slope receives, and what is visible from a point.

Question: What is the elevation at a given location?


Realisations

1. Danmarks Højdemodel (DHM)

DHM provides Denmark’s national elevation data from airborne LiDAR.

Spatial Access Path

DHM products are raster/point cloud — no entity joins.
Access is by spatial query: give coordinates, get elevation.

DTM (Terrænmodel): bare-earth elevation (0.4m grid)
  └─ Use: hydrology, flood modelling, slope analysis

DSM (Overflademodel): including buildings, vegetation (0.4m grid)
  └─ Use: visibility analysis, urban modelling, solar potential

Point cloud: raw LiDAR returns (~4-5 pts/m²)
  └─ Use: custom processing, building extraction, forestry

Contour lines: derived from DTM (0.5m and 2.5m intervals)
  └─ Use: cartographic display, terrain visualisation

Origin and quality layers: provenance and acquisition context for the DHM products
  └─ Use: quality control, lineage, and interpreting model generation

Historical releases and hillshades: archived DHM vintages and derived terrain visualisations
  └─ Use: temporal comparison, visual interpretation, and archaeological or landscape reading

Key Attributes

AttributeDescription
elevation_valueHeight in metres above DVR90 datum
horizontal_accuracy~0.15m
vertical_accuracy~0.05m (terrain), ~0.10m (surface)
acquisition_dateLiDAR campaign date

2. Dataforsyningen Tile Services

Elevation data is also served as web services by SDFI:

  • WCS: Web Coverage Service for elevation grids
  • Download: GeoTIFF and LAZ tiles
  • Contour WFS: Vector contour lines

Cross-Domain Relevance (Threads)

  • Hydrosphere: Elevation drives water flow direction, flood modelling, catchment delineation. DTM is the foundation for hydrological analysis.

Classical Theme References

StandardThemeLink
ISO 19115Elevation|Elevation
INSPIREElevation|Elevation
UN-GGIMElevation and Depth|Elevation and Depth

Unmatched Realisations

  • Dataforsyningen

Unmatched Realisations

  • Dataforsyningen