ATKIS® - Digital Terrain Models

Digital terrain models (DGMs) are arranged in regular grids or irregularly or as lines in geocoded numbers of points for position and height which describe the landforms of the Earth’s surface. Digital terrain models can also contain enhanced information (e.g. scarps, structure lines, individual geodetic points).

The following digital terrain models (DGM) of different qualities are being set up in the course of the ATKIS®-project by the German state survey for the standardised description of the relief of the territory of the Federal Republic of Germany:

  • Digital terrain model 1 - DGM1
  • Digital terrain model 2 - DGM2
  • Digital terrain model 5 - DGM5
  • Digital terrain model 25 - DGM25
  • Digital terrain model 50 - DGM50
  • Digital terrain model 200 - DGM200
  • Digital terrain model 1000 - DGM1000

Not every Federal State has all DGMs covering the needs for the high and medium quality levels (DGM1 - DGM5).


The ATKIS® feature type catalogues for digital terrain models (ATKIS®-OK DGMx) specifie which feature types a DGM contains and how the features must be formed. This catalogues are available only in german (AAA-GeoInfoDok6.0).

You can find further meta information in the Geoportal.de.

©2024 Working Committee of the Surveying Authorities of the Laender of the Federal Republic of Germany