Military

The first use of terrain models was due to military purposes. The relief model allows a quick overview of a certain area. Time is in war an absolute crucial point. This means, that the relief of the interesting area must be prepared before a probable conflict. But nowadays the computer based production of terrain models allows production even in very short time, assumed the needed raw data inclusive digital terrain model already exists. A model of the landscape enables to memorise the details much better than a map and minimises the risk of incorrect reading of a map. In addition the field of vision from each point is easily to detect, something very important in war and not so easy to find out from a map. It is also possible to easy evaluate the coverage of a fire position.

Terrain models were used extensively in World War II and during the Korean War plastic relief maps first were used.

French relief plan of Montmelian.The French depicted their victory at the battle of Montmélian by a model 1:411, 461 x 412 cm, 1693, repaired in 1790 and later on.
Picture from Roux p.68.