USGS chips away at high-res 3D map of the United States

When the U.S. Geological Survey was established in 1879, its main concern was to create accurate maps showing the locations of mountains, rivers and mineral resources to support westward expansion.

What those early maps didn’t offer, however, was accurate elevation data, and elevation data is increasingly important to the economy, as well as to disaster response and other critical public and scientific government services.

According to a recent study commissioned by USGS, enhanced elevation data could generate as much as $13 billion in benefits each year. The greatest benefits would be in flood risk management, infrastructure and construction management, natural resources conservation and agriculture.

The technology for enhanced elevation mapping is already available. Light detection and ranging – or Lidar – devices on aircraft can cover 50 square kilometers an hour, delivering 300,000 points of elevation data per second, accurate to between 4 and 8 inches of elevation. That’s enough precision to not only support obvious efforts such as flood risk management, but it could even be used by vehicle navigation systems to minimize fuel consumption.

There’s one snag in the effort to map the country with Lidar, however: money.

According to Kevin Gallagher, associate director of the Core Sciences Systems division at USGS, it would cost $800-$900 million to collect Lidar data for the entire United States. “The bottom line is we don’t have that kind of money in our budget,” Gallagher said.

So when the USGS launched its 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) in 2012 with the goal of generating a high-resolution elevation map of the United States over the next eight years, it was clear that some creative partnering was called for.

The first step in partnering was obvious. USGS created a 3DEP executive forum to loop in other agencies that have a vested interest in Lidar. Among the 13 agencies and department included are the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and NASA.

In addition to sharing data that results from 3DEP mapping, the agencies also share the costs of specific data collection efforts. “Our funding set-aside purely for elevation is relatively small,” Gallagher said. “Last year our number was around $2 million. But we are able through partnership funding to bring a larger sum of money to the table. Federal agencies are all contributing different amounts of money driven by their needs.”

USGS is also turning to the states as partners, with Alaska and North Carolina leading the way.