Re: Calculate mean height of a terrain model



dlidstrom@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

What I'm trying to compute can be described like this: say I have a
terrainmodel representing the ocean floor. I want to know the
average depth.

Of the floor, or of the actual ocean (not a surface, but a volume)?
And for what exact meaning of "average"?

This terrainmodel was created by sampling at random points and a
model was created using delaunay triangulation.

The average depth of the ocean would be the depth of the
center-of-gravity of the water body forming that ocean, i.e.

integral(dV, z) / integral(dV, 1)

This can be computed from your triangulated floor model as a weighted
average of the center-of-gravity depths of the pillars of water above
each floor triangle.

Btw, what does the average of the depths of the vertex coordinates
represent, geometrically?

Nothing in particular. I never said it did. It was just an example
to illustrate how imprecise your problem description is: even this
completely arbitrary number would not have failed to satisfy it.

--
Hans-Bernhard Broeker (broeker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx)
Even if all the snow were burnt, ashes would remain.
.



Relevant Pages