Digital Terrain Model (DTM) provides a bare earth elevation surface for Great Britain at a 5-metre spatial resolution. Derived from stereo aerial photography between 2008 and 2012, it features a vertical accuracy of less than 60cm root mean square error.
Use Cases
- Model hydrological flow and watershed delineation using the 5m resolution bare earth elevation surface.
- Perform line-of-sight analysis for infrastructure planning with the terrain model that excludes buildings and vegetation.
- Generate slope and aspect maps from the DTM for geological and geomorphological studies.
- Calibrate and validate other elevation datasets against this model's specified <60cm RMSE vertical accuracy.
Strengths
- High 5-metre spatial resolution provides detailed terrain representation.
- Vertical accuracy quantified as less than 60cm root mean square error (RMSE).
- Covers the entire landmass of Great Britain.
- Derived from stereo aerial photography, a proven remote sensing method.
Limitations
- Data is from 2008-2012 and may not reflect recent terrain changes from construction or erosion.
- Semi-automated editing process required manual intervention, potentially introducing localized inconsistencies.
- As a raster DTM, specific columnar metadata or sample data points are not provided in the input.
Provenance
- Source
- British Geological Survey (BGS), managing data from the Pan Government Agreement (PGA).
- Collection Method
- Derived from digital stereo aerial photography acquired by Getmapping, processed with semi-automated algorithms to remove buildings and vegetation.
- Time Range
- 2008-2012
- Freshness
- Last metadata update was 2026-03-11, but underlying data collection period is 2008-2012.
- Geography
- Great Britain