WisconsinView Offers Digital Elevation Models of Wisconsin Counties
With the cooperation and leadership of the Wisconsin State Cartographer's Office (SCO) and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Floodplain Mapping Group, WisconsinView is now offering downloads of Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) digital elevation models (DEMs) of available Wisconsin counties. Airborne LiDAR technology captures high-resolution data of surface elevation useful in a wide range of land management and research applications.
A five-foot DEM of the northeast corner of Grant County, Wisconsin, derived from airborne LiDAR data.
Currently, 14 of 72 Wisconsin counties are available with an additional seven to be added in the next few months; more counties will be included in the future. At this time only DEMs are available online. The LiDAR "point cloud" data from which this bare-earth (surface) elevation product is made is scheduled for later release.
Downloads are available in ESRI GRID format at the WisconsinView site. For more information about the LiDAR initiative see this SCO article.
Since 2004, WisconsinView, under the leadership of Sam Batzli, Space Science and Engineering Center, has made aerial photography and satellite imagery of Wisconsin available to the public for free over the web. As part of the AmericaView consortium, a nationwide program that focuses on satellite remote sensing data and technologies in support of applied research, K-16 education, workforce development, and technology transfer, WisconsinView supports access and use of these imagery collections.
