Li (geo-informatics, Hong Kong Polytechnic U.), Zhu (information engineering, Wuhan U.), and Gold's (computing, U. of Glamorgan) textbook is a greatly rewritten work derived from Li and Zhu's earlier Chinese postgraduate textbook, Digital Elevation Model (Wuhan Technical U. of Surveying and Mapping Press (now Wuhan U. Press), 2000). Suitable as both a graduate-level textbook and as a resource for researchers and practitioners in geosciences, the text covers sampling and data acquisition; the theories, methods, and algorithms for digital terrain modeling (DTM); quality control and accuracy; presentation of DTMs in databases, in contour form and in other forms of computer graphics; interpretation and applications; and extensions of DTMs for specific problems, suggesting where research in the field might lead.