MM 
5 
International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B4. Istanbul 2004 
— generation of the Multivariable Digital Terrain Model 
-MDTM- that includes all the variables that has been 
extracted from the statistical (and geostatistical) 
analysis. 
—  non-supervised classification (ISODATA method) of 
the MDTM. 
— analysis of the detected classes characteristics. 
Quality control of the classification. 
DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL 
— classification of the experimental data considering the 
window where each point is included. 
— basic statistics and directional variograms of the 
classified data. 
  
Moving windows schema parameters 
(size, spacing, overlap, ...) 
  
E DEM of the windows 
Statistics (mean, std.dev.,minimum,quartiles maximum,range....) 
Directional variograms 
Y 
MULTIVARIABLE DIGITAL 
TERRAIN MODEL 
  
  
  
W 32 variables 
ss Statistical variables (mean, variance, CV, …) 
Variograms parameters (anisotropy ratio, variogram values...) 
ISODATA Unsupervised Classification 
v 
CLASSIFIED MAP 
v 
CLASSIFIED DATA 
— se Ciassification Statistics 
m Variograms 
Class Statistics 
Figure 1. Workflow of the proposed methodology 
3. EXAMPLE 
3.1 Data set 
In order to show the capabilities of the proposed 
methodology, it has been applied to an example area. The 
selected area is located between the Granada and Almería 
province (S of Spain) being banked to the S for Sierra 
Nevada's relief (figure 2). 
The used information for this terrain morphological 
classification has been a digital elevation model in format 
grid with 20x20m's spacing generated starting from a contour 
map's digitalization to scale 1:50000. 
The selected area was selected for its geological interest. In 
the area, there is a important diversity of morphological 
units. In the south, the high summit of Sierra Nevada's 
foothills with a very important drainage network 
development is present. In the north the arca the terrain 
presents minor heights (Negratin Dam zone) A very 
important surface (central area) is occupied by the Guadix 
Basin that shows up as a flat area surrounded of important 
relief. 
The zone has 50x70 km surface that produces a DEM with 
8,756,001 points distributed according to a mesh 2501 
samples x 3501 lines. In figure 3 a DEM grayscale 
representation is shown. In table | the most important basic 
statistics of the terrain heights are summarized. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
Figure 2. Geographical localization 
The most important characteristic of the area is the amplitude 
of the heights range that stretches out from 500 meters on the 
sea level to the 3480 meters, (Mulhacen peak, Iberian 
Peninsula maximum height). The mean value is 1261 meters 
and the median value 1101 meters (that is representative of 
the heights of the Guadix plain that occupies an important 
surface of the selected area).