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What is a digital elevation model (DEM)?

A Digital Elevation Model (DEM) is a representation of the bare ground (bare earth) topographic surface of the Earth excluding trees, buildings, and any other surface objects. 

DEMs are created from a variety of sources. USGS DEMs used to be derived primarily from topographic maps. Those are being systematically replaced with DEMs derived from high-resolution lidar and IfSAR (Alaska only) data.  

Learn more:  

Updated Date: July 26, 2024
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