International Standards for Generation of Digital Elevation Models

According to the increasing number of digital geospatial data, it is necessary to study the international standards for collection, processing, and quality control of geospatial data intended for entry into the National Digital Cartographic Data Bases. In this paper, after introducing the international standard organizations, such as USGS, FGDC, ISO and OGC, a complete review is performed on the standards for generation and processing of digital elevation models. These standards are intended to facilitate the interchange and use of DEM data. DEM collection and editing systems must produce data that are compatible with other production systems, not only in the Federal sector but also in other government and private sector organizations. Because of rapidly changing technologies in the mapping industries, these DEM standards cover a broad range of collection systems and related accuracy levels. It is the intent of this standard to set common standards that will ensure that data will be acceptable for entry into the national digital databases.