• Journal of the Korean Society of Surveying, Geodesy, Photogrammetry and Cartography
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• v.28 no.2
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• pp.265-271
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• 2010

This paper discusses a new software package, DEM_Comp, developed for effectively compressing large digital elevation model (DEM) data sets based on Lempel-Ziv-Welch (LZW) compression and Huffman coding. DEM_Comp was developed using the $C^{++}$ language running on a Windows-series operating system. DEM_Comp was also tested on various test sites with different territorial attributes, and the results were evaluated. Recently, a high-resolution version of the DEM has been obtained using new equipment and the related technologies of LiDAR (LIght Detection And Radar) and SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar). DEM compression is useful because it helps reduce the disk space or transmission bandwidth. Generally, data compression is divided into two processes: i) analyzing the relationships in the data and ii) deciding on the compression and storage methods. DEM_Comp was developed using a three-step compression algorithm applying a DEM with a regular grid, Lempel-Ziv compression, and Huffman coding. When pre-processing alone was used on high- and low-relief terrain, the efficiency was approximately 83%, but after completing all three steps of the algorithm, this increased to 97%. Compared with general commercial compression software, these results show approximately 14% better performance. DEM_Comp as developed in this research features a more efficient way of distributing, storing, and managing large high-resolution DEMs.