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Elevation and terrain

Elevation and terrain

mapx has two height models of 1 m resolution (BEV, laser scanning): the terrain model dtm (bare ground) and the surface model dsm (including trees and buildings). Use dtm for gradients, profiles and trails, dsm for visibility and building heights. Every request needs a token (Access and limits); curl samples send it as a header, browser samples as access_token.

Height at a point 

curl -s -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_TOKEN" "https://api.mapx.at/v1/elevation/12.694,47.074" | jq '.properties | {dtm, dsm}'

Several points, up to 512, in one request:

const url = "https://api.mapx.at/v1/elevation?points=12.694,47.074;15.3294,48.2272&model=dtm&access_token=YOUR_TOKEN";
const { features } = await (await fetch(url)).json();
console.log(features.map((f) => f.properties.elevation)); // meters above sea level

Heights are in meters with 0.1 m steps. Outside the data area the value is null.

Elevation profile 

const url = "https://api.mapx.at/v1/elevation/profile?coordinates=12.69,47.07;12.72,47.09&samples=50&access_token=YOUR_TOKEN";
const { properties: p } = await (await fetch(url)).json();
console.log(p.ascent_m, p.descent_m, p.min_m, p.max_m);
// p.distances[i] (m from the start) and p.elevations[i] (m) are ready for a chart

Up to 1024 samples along a line of 2 to 512 vertices. Example with a chart: Elevation profile. Routes already carry ascent and descent in routes[].summary; use annotations=elevation for a height per segment.

3D terrain in the map

Add the terrain-rgb tileset as raster-dem source and turn on terrain:

map.on("load", () => {
  map.addSource("dem", { type: "raster-dem", url: "https://tiles.mapx.at/v1/tiles/terrain-rgb.json", tileSize: 512 });
  map.setTerrain({ source: "dem", exaggeration: 1.2 });
  map.addLayer({ id: "hillshade", type: "hillshade", source: "dem" });
});
map.setPitch(60);

Step-by-step with aerial imagery: 3D terrain with orthophoto. The style outdoors already includes hillshade and contours.

Read heights from tiles

The tiles use the Terrain-RGB encoding: height = -10000 + (R * 65536 + G * 256 + B) * 0.1. Decode tiles yourself for bulk work, see Terrain-RGB. For single points the API is simpler.

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