Enhancing elevation models with landcover feature data

Abstract

Methods and systems for enhancing elevation models with landcover feature data are provided. An example method involves accessing geospatial imagery covering an area of interest that includes a three-dimensional landcover feature, generating a digital surface model that includes one or more above-ground points corresponding to the three-dimensional landcover feature, extracting two-dimensional vector data from the geospatial imagery that represents a two-dimensional boundary of the three-dimensional landcover feature, generating a digital terrain model by removing from the digital surface model a portion that is bound by the two-dimensional vector data, generating three-dimensional vector data representing the three-dimensional landcover feature, inserting one or more ground-level points of the three-dimensional vector data into the digital terrain model, and filling the digital terrain model where the portion of the digital surface model was removed with estimated ground-level points of the three-dimensional vector data as a seed in a non-linear optimization process.