OSMnx · Elevation, DEM & 3D terrain (La Paz)
A 3D urban terrain for Avenida Naciones Unidas, La Paz within a 2 km radius. La Paz is the reference case because its relief makes the DEM pipeline, node elevations and street grades obvious at a glance. Mirrors the Elevation panel.
Needs internet access unless you supply a local GeoTIFF. An OpenTopography API key gives the best DEM quality; Open-Elevation works without one.
1. Download the area (2 km radius)
In Download, use Point (or Address) with the location near Avenida Naciones Unidas and Distance 2000 m, then Project Graph in Graph Operations.
2. Get elevation data
Under 1 · Get Elevation Data, pick a DEM Source (OpenTopography, Open-Elevation, or Local GeoTIFF with a Local Path), enable Apply to Nodes and Create Terrain, and set Vertical Scale. API sources also take an API Resolution and a Workers count.
Export AOI writes the area of interest out, which is what you need to fetch a Copernicus DEM tile for the local GeoTIFF route.
3. Apply 3D positions
Conforms the network to the terrain surface, draping the streets across the slopes.
4. Add edge grades
Computes each edge’s slope (grade) and its absolute value (grade_abs). La Paz’s steep streets produce high grades.
5. Elevation-aware routing
In Routing, set Path Weight to elevation_impedance and choose an Alpha. The cost becomes length * (1 + alpha * |grade|), so steep climbs are penalized and flatter detours win. Compare against a plain length route to see how far the detour goes.
6. Add a basemap
Under 5 · Basemap Texture, choose a Source and a Zoom, then Fetch & Apply.
Next steps
Basemaps & API textures reuses this terrain to compare imagery sources, WMS layers and zoom levels.