LIDAR Composite DSM 2017: 2m Resolution Digital Surface Model for England

A 2-meter resolution raster elevation model covering approximately 75% of England, derived from airborne LIDAR surveys. Produced by the Environment Agency, the composite merges the best available data from a time-stamped archive and is updated annually. All LIDAR data has a vertical accuracy of +/-15cm RMSE and is referenced to the Ordnance Survey Newlyn datum.

Use Cases

• Modeling urban development and building heights based on surface objects captured in the DSM.
• Analyzing vegetation canopy structure and biomass based on last-return LIDAR signals.
• Creating high-resolution terrain maps for flood risk modeling based on the 2m spatial resolution.
• Generating tinted shaded relief visualizations for cartography based on the available WMS feed.

Strengths

• Covers approximately 75% of England, providing broad spatial coverage.
• Has a high vertical accuracy of +/-15cm RMSE.
• Uses a 2-meter spatial resolution, allowing for detailed surface models.
• Is updated annually to incorporate the latest and best-resolution survey data.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the source, covering only England.

Provenance

Source

Environment Agency (UK)

Collection Method

Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) mapping, with data merged and re-sampled from a time-stamped archive.

Time Range

2017 (with annual updates; a 2020 version is noted as available)

Freshness

Updated annually; the specific record references a 2017 version with a newer 2020 version noted as available.

Geography

England