Contour Lines Generation in Karstic Plateaus for Topographic Maps

Abstract. Contour lines are a key features of topographic maps as they make the comprehension of terrain more easy. But they are no longer drawn by cartographers, they are mostly automatically derived from digital terrain models. Despite real progress in this automated derivation, some specific terrain landscapes remain incorrectly depicted with such techniques, and this is the case for karstic plateaus full of sinkholes. This paper proposes a specific automated method to derive better contour lines in plateaus, particularly around sinkholes. The process first detects karstic plateaus with many sinkholes, as well as the individual sinkholes. Then, the DTM is smoothed to better reflect the terrain in the plateau and in its surroundings. As a third step, the contour lines around sinkholes are enhanced to draw legible round features that better reflect the real terrain. The process was implemented in a QGIS plugin and tested on a small area with a karstic plateau in the Jura mountain in France, and the cartographers of IGN, the French national mapping agency assessed the results as a great improvement compared to the generic automated process to derive contour lines.