Google Earth-Derived Digital Elevation Model:

A Comparative Assessment against ASTER and SRTM Data

Noradila Rusli , M.Rafee Majid & Ami Hassan Md Din
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
81310 Johor Bahru, JOHOR

ABSTRACT
This paper presents statistical evidence that Digital Elevation Model (DEM) derived from Google Earth is commendable and has a good correlation with ASTER (Advanced
Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer) and SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission) elevation data. The accuracy of DEM elevation points extracted
from Google Earth was compared against those of DEMs from ASTER and SRTM for flat, hilly and mountainous sections of a pre-selected rural watershed. The DEM data
from Google Earth and SRTM for flat and hilly sections are strongly correlated with the R2 of 0.791 and 0.891 respectively. Even stronger correlation is shown for the
mountainous section where the R2 values between Google Earths DEM and ASTERs and between Google Earths DEM and SRTMs DEMs are respectively 0.917 and 0.865.

INTRODUCTION
In Malaysia, topographic information is normally gathered from topographic maps available at the Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia. These maps
need to be carefully scanned and digitized before the generation of their DEMs. Obviously for a wide area, these processes are tedious and time consuming. As
for these reasons, this paper presents an alternative method to extract elevation data using free online web tools. The resulting DEMS are then compared with
those from SRTM 90 data and ASTER data for quality assessment.

DATA & METHOD

Sungai Muar watershed area was selected as a study area. The extent of Sungai Muar watershed is from 1.926702N, 102.056472E in lower left corner and
2.972698 N, 103.222606E in upper right corner (Figure 1).
The study area was divided into 36 small areas to obtain denser elevation Identify location (wide area)
points in each area within the study boundary. Google Earth elevation data
Google
Earth
were extracted using a free online tool named Terrain Zonum, available online
Divided into 36 small area
at http://www.zonums.com/gmaps/terrain.php (see Figure 2).
The SRTM 90 DEM and ASTER DEM are in raster format, ready to use and
can be downloaded for free. Three specific areas were identified within the
watershed based on their relative topography, i.e. flat area, hilly area and
mountainous area. A total of 5,000 points were then randomly generated
within each area (total points= 15,000) using Hawths Tool in ArcGIS 9.3.
These points were later utilized to extract their elevation values given by four
types of DEM data used in this study, i.e. Google Earth, Aster 10, Aster 30 and
SRTM 90.

Figure 1: Study area

Google Earths elevation

points were extracted
using a tool which can
be obtained at
http://www.zonums.com/
gmaps/terrain.php.

Export the coordinates

Extract 5000 elevation
points

Figure 2: Extracting Google Earths

elevation

RESULTS
35

R2 = 0.791

R2 = 0.241

Elevation (meter)

Though Google Earth data are

positively correlated to the other data,
the correlation values differ depending
on terrain. For flat terrains, the
strongest correlation is with SRTM 90
(R2=0.791) while the best correlation
with ASTER data is still poor at R2 =
0.241 with ASTER 10 (see Figure 3).

40

Figure 3: Correlation of Google Earth data with ASTER30, ASTER10 and SRTM90

R2 = 0.140

30
25
ASTER10
ASTER30
Google Earth
SRTM 90

20
15
10
5
0

Elevation (meter)

200
180
160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0

11

Figure 4: Google Earth data correlated with ASTER 30, ASTER 10 and SRTM 90
R2 = 0.891

R2 = 0.102

R2 = 0.185

ASTER10
ASTER30
Google Earth
SRTM 90

11

21
31
Elevation points

41

51

Figure 5: Strong association between Google Earth elevation data with ASTER 30, ASTER 10 and SRTM 90 data in mountainous area
800

R2 = 0.917

R2 = 0.919

700
Elevation(meter)

R2 = 0.865

600
500
ASTER10
ASTER30
Google Earth
SRTM 90

400
300
200
100

21
31
Elevation points

41

51

For hilly terrains, the association of

Google Earth data and SRTM 90
become stronger with R2 = 0.891.
However, its correlation with ASTER 30
and ASTER 10 deteriorates with R2 =
0.102 and 0.185 respectively. Same as
for flat terrains, the quality of Google
Earth elevation data is close to SRTM90
(see figure 4).

For mountainous terrains, the correlation of

Google Earth data with ASTER 30 and
ASTER 10 improve significantly (R2=0.917
and 0.919 respectively). Google Earth data
also has strong association with SRTM 90,
with a consistent R2 of 0.865 (see figure 5).
Hence it can be concluded that for
mountainous terrains all of the DEM data
sources have the same performance level.

0
1

11

CONCLUSION
For flat terrains, Google Earths elevation data produce DEMs that are close to those by
SRTM 90 which is approximately of 90-meter resolution. However, for more challenging
terrains of hilly to mountainous areas, the quality of DEMs from Google Earth becomes
better and almost similar to the quality generated by ASTER data. Free source of
elevation data is a tremendous help to researchers/students trying to minimize their
time collecting elevation data which is normally tedious, time consuming and costly. It
has been proven here that Google Earth is one possible source of that free elevation
data.

21
31
Elevation points

41

51

Authors
Noradila Rusli @ Ruslik
Phd Candidate
Faculty of Built Environment
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Email: radhiutm@gmail.com
Assoc. Prof. Dr M. Rafee Majid
Centre for Innovative Planning & Development
Faculty of Built Environment
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Ami Hassan Md Din

Phd Candidate
Faculty of Geoinformation &
Real Estate
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia