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Description and Generalization of Contour Lines

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Description Approaches and Automated Generalization Algorithms for Groups of Map Objects

Abstract

A contour line (also isoline, isopleth, or isarithm) is a line on a map joining points of equal height or depth above or below a level, usually mean sea level. It is often just called a “contour”. Each contour is a closed curve (Veregin 1999, 2000; Cheung and Shi 2004). The difference in height or depth between successive contour lines is the contour interval. It generally becomes greater and greater when the map scale becomes less and less (Joao 1998).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Geomatics, Lanzhou Jiaotong University, Lanzhou, Gansu, China

    Haowen Yan

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Yan, H. (2019). Description and Generalization of Contour Lines. In: Description Approaches and Automated Generalization Algorithms for Groups of Map Objects. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3678-2_3

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