The ability to describe and represent terrain relief through mathematical modelling has been an invaluable advance in geosciences and has changed how civil engineering projects are designed. Since its creation in the 1950s in the USA to support the automation of road projects, it has been used in a wide range of engineering applications requiring elevation information on the relief of the terrain. The list of products derived from such models is extensive, including contours, terrain profiles, volume calculations, earthworks, geometric design of transport routes, pipeline design, electrical transmission lines, slope maps, drainage networks, landscape perspective views, support for the production of orthophotos in photogrammetry, and many others.