US National Elevation Models at One-Meter Resolution

One-meter resolution Digital Elevation Models from the USGS 3D Elevation Program represent the bare-earth surface across the United States. The collection provides foundational elevation data in meters, referenced to NAVD88, and is tiled within the Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system. USGS produces these DEMs exclusively from high-resolution lidar source data.

Use Cases

• Perform hydrologic modeling using bare-earth elevation values to delineate watersheds and predict floodplains.
• Generate high-resolution terrain visualizations for mapping applications by rendering the one-meter DEM tiles.
• Conduct resource monitoring and change detection analysis by comparing elevation surfaces from different lidar collection projects.

Strengths

• Provides one-meter resolution, the highest standard DEM offered in the USGS 3DEP product suite.
• Elevation values are in meters and vertically referenced to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD83).
• Data is produced exclusively from high-resolution light detection and ranging (lidar) source data of one-meter or higher resolution.

Limitations

• DEM surfaces are seamless within collection projects but not necessarily seamless across different projects.
• Tiles are distributed in UTM zones, and tiles crossing two zones are delivered in both, potentially creating redundancy.
• The description does not specify the total spatial coverage or number of tiles available for download.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior.

Collection Method

Produced from high-resolution light detection and ranging (lidar) source data.

Time Range

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Freshness

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Geography

Conterminous United States (CONUS), with specific five-meter DEM products for Alaska.