Results of the National Enhanced Elevation Assessment

Kirk Waters
NOAA, Charleston, SC
Gregory Snyder
USGS, Reston, VA

LiDAR for Infrastructure and Terrain Mapping
Monday March 5, 2012 - 3:15 to 4:30 pm

The National Enhanced Elevation Assessment was completed in December of 2011. The effort was led by USGS and funded by multiple agencies. Eight scenarios for a national enhanced elevation data program were evaluated. All scenarios considered the tradeoffs between benefits and costs for varied elevation data quality and replacement cycles. While every scenario resulted in a positive benefit cost ratio, the range of needs met varied from 13 to 66 percent of the requirements identified in the study. Additional scenarios are being examined for meeting a greater percentage of needs, particularly for uses that require very high levels of data quality. Using conservative numbers, the scenarios produced maximum expected benefits of over $1B annually. The assessment also concluded that the current cooperative program was efficient and resulted in relatively little duplication. The level of current investments nationally, however, was not sufficient to meet more than about 10 percent of the identified requirements. As part of the project, a detailed inventory of existing elevation data, including the Pacific Islands, was developed as a planning baseline.