Coastal Digital Elevation Models with Integrated Bathymetry and Topography

Digital elevation models integrate ocean bathymetry and land topography for U.S. and other global coastlines. NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information builds and distributes these models, which are derived from multiple federal and academic sources. Cell sizes range from high-resolution 1/9 arc-second (~3 meters) for coastal studies to 1 arc-minute (~2 km) for global models.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal inundation from storm surges using high-resolution elevation and bathymetry data.
• Analyzing shoreline change and erosion by comparing DEMs referenced to vertical datums like NAVD 88.
• Supporting marine navigation and habitat mapping with integrated bathymetric data from sources like NOAA NOS.
• Conducting regional offshore studies using DEMs with 3 to 24 arc-second cell sizes.

Strengths

• Integrates data from multiple authoritative sources including USGS, USACE, and FEMA.
• Offers a range of cell resolutions from ~3 meters to ~2 kilometers.
• Models are referenced to standard vertical (e.g., MHW, NAVD 88) and horizontal (e.g., NAD 83, WGS84) datums.

Limitations

• Specific row count, total size, and temporal coverage for the collection are not provided.
• Data integration from disparate sources may introduce inconsistencies in accuracy or methodology.
• License terms and specific update frequency for individual models are unknown.

Provenance

Source

NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI), with contributions from other NOAA offices, USGS, USACE, FEMA, and academic/private partners.

Collection Method

Integration of bathymetric, topographic, and shoreline data from various government and non-government surveys.

Geography

U.S. and other global coastlines.