Smooth three-dimensional reconstruction from contour maps

In this paper a method to perform a smooth three-dimensional reconstruction from a contour map of a terrain is presented. The input data to the proposed method is 3D points of polygonal lines that represent contour maps with the elevation information included; such data is available at INEGI in the case of Mexico. The obtained 3D reconstruction is represented by a triangle mesh. The main idea of the proposed method is to include intermediate points among contour lines to avoid the problem of flat triangles, thus a good reconstruction with smooth changes in its surface can be achieved. The intermediate points are selected from the skeleton of the contour lines, and their heights are calculated automatically. The method is tested with simulated data to shown its effectiveness.