CREATING A FRAMEWORK FOR INTEGRATED U.S. DIGITAL ELEVATION MODELS

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) are working together to create an integrated framework for the creation, discovery, and public access to bathymetric, topographic and combined topobathymetric digital elevation models (DEMs) of the U.S. This framework should consist of: a comprehensive suite of consistent, spatially aligned, multi-temporal, regularly updated DEMs; a well-defined DEM tiling mechanism; standards for DEMs and DEM documentation; procedures and tools for updating of DEM tiles as new source data become available, and inclusion of DEMs from other government agencies, academia and the private sector; and online tools for public search, discovery and retrieval. The models should be available in a variety of spatial resolutions, vertical datums and file formats in order to support multiple uses, such as hazard mitigation, spatial planning, habitat research, coastal change studies, and Earth visualization. The models should also be seamless across the ocean-land boundary and between adjacent DEM tiles, and also be consistent between different spatial resolutions. We seek input on these and other criteria to consider while developing this integrated DEM framework.