On Wed, Dec 19, 2012 at 2:32 PM, Marco Fleckinger <marco.fleckinger@wikipedia.at> wrote:

IMHO this should be part of a model. E.g. Altitudes are usually measured in metres or feet, never in km or yards. Distances have the same SI base unit but are measured also measured in km, depending of the use case.

No, altitudes are sometimes measured in km, at least once you get beyond the Earth's surface. 

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubble_Space_Telescope:
Orbit height 559 km (347 mi)

From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olympus_Mons:
Peak 21 km (69,000 ft) above datum