The Digital Terrain Model (DGM) is the height-based description of the terrain. The terrain here is the interface between the earth's surface and the air or the water surface and the air. The digital terrain model consists of regularly distributed terrain points whose position in a position reference system and their height in a height reference system are known and stored in a database. The distance between the terrain points, the so-called grid or mesh size, is 1, 2, 5, 10, 25 or 50 meters in the DGM. The source data of the DGM consists of laser scan data (LIDAR data) and results of photogrammetric evaluations based on the current aerial images. The DGM is available in the formats ASCII text with east value, north value and height (x,y,z) per point, as ArcInfo-GRID ASCII file, as interpolated contour lines in SHAPE format, as LAZ format, as TERRAINTIFF and as silencing image in TIF format (32bit). The data is provided free of charge via automated procedures or by self-extraction. When using the data, the license conditions must be observed. Important change: Since February 2023, the DGM has been derived and surrendered from the basic database with a modified grid element line. In the past, the individual vector points of the model were located on the lower left corner of the raster elements. Now the grid element position is in the middle of the pixel. DGM 2014-2021 will continue to be available as a historical product, but will no longer be updated.

The digital terrain model (DTM) is the height-based description of the terrain. The terrain here is the interface between the surface of the earth and the air or the surface of the water and the air. The digital terrain model consists of regularly distributed terrain points whose position in a location reference system and height in a height reference system are known and stored in a database. The distance between the terrain points, the so-called grid or mesh size, is 1, 2, 5, 10, 25 or 50 meters for the DTM. The source data of the DTM consists of laser scan data (LIDAR data) and the results of photogrammetric evaluations based on the current aerial photographs. The DTM is in ASCII text format with easting, northing and elevation (x,y,z) per point, as an ArcInfo-GRID ASCII file, as interpolated contour lines in SHAPE format, as LAZ format, as TERRINTIFF and as a shading image in TIF format (32Bit) available. The data is provided free of charge via automated procedures or by self-extraction. When using the data, the license conditions must be observed. Important change: Since February 2023, the DTM has been derived and released from the basic database with a changed grid element position. In the past, the individual vector points of the model were located on the lower left corner of the grid elements. Now the grid element position is in the center of the pixel. The 2014-2021 DTM is still available as a historical product, but will no longer be updated.