Elevation Data from AWS, Open Topography, and USGS APIs

The 'elevatr' package provides programmatic access to elevation data from multiple web services. It returns data as 'sf' simple features objects for point services or 'raster' objects for raster services, with future support planned for 'terra' objects. The package is authored by Jeffrey W. Hollister.

Use Cases

• Generate terrain models for hydrological analysis based on raster elevation services.
• Extract elevation profiles for route planning based on point elevation services.
• Conduct topographic analysis for environmental research based on global and regional elevation datasets.

Strengths

• Integrates data from three authoritative sources: Amazon Web Services Terrain Tiles, Open Topography Global Datasets API, and the USGS Elevation Point Query Service.
• Provides data in standard geospatial formats ('sf' and 'raster' objects) for interoperability.
• The package description clearly outlines its current capabilities and planned future development.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count and dataset size are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Amazon Web Services Terrain Tiles, Open Topography Global Datasets API, USGS Elevation Point Query Service.

Collection Method

Aggregated via the 'elevatr' R package.

Time Range

null

Freshness

Last updated date is unknown.

Geography

Likely global, based on the inclusion of the Open Topography Global Datasets API.