Jeffrey J Danielson
Jeff Danielson is a Physical Geographer with the U.S. Geological Survey at the Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS) in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
Biography
Jeff Danielson has been engaged in topographic science research since 1995. He has an extensive background in working with geographic information systems technologies, image processing, remote sensing, and geospatial elevation data. Danielson has developed hydrologic derivative products from continental-scale digital elevation models and was the project lead on the development of a new global elevation product suite “The Global Multi-resolution Terrain Elevation Data 2010.” His current work is leading the USGS Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) Applications Project. This project is focused on developing high-resolution integrated topobathymetric elevation models from both lidar (land topography) and bathymetric (water depth) data sources that provide a seamless elevation product useful for applications such as, modeling sea level rise, storm surge, and sediment transport. The CoNED project also conducts fundamental algorithm remote sensing (lidar / point cloud) research to extend the data structure for topobathymetric elevation models and create methods for fostering land change science studies.
Education
Jeff Danielson has a BS in Geography and Computer Science and an MS in Geography from South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD, USA.
Science and Products
Alaska North Slope LiDAR
High-resolution light detection and ranging (lidar) elevation data were acquired along the north coast of Alaska between 2009 and 2012. The lidar acquisition, from Icy Cape, Alaska to the United States/Canadian border, comprised approximately 11,000 km2. The airborne lidar data were acquired in support of the U.S. Geological Survey Coastal and Marine Geology Program. The purpose of...
3D Topobathymetric Digital Elevation Model for Lake Powell Storage Capacity Assessment
To support the modeling of the Colorado River water storage area capacity tables by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Utah Water Science Center, the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center created a 3D high-resolution topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) for Lake Powell. Located in south-central Utah and north-...
Sea-Level Rise Viewer for American Samoa: A Co-Developed Visualization and Planning Tool
American Samoa is vulnerable to sea-level rise in part due to the steep terrain of its islands. This terrain requires the majority of the islands’ villages and infrastructure to be located along thin strips of coastal land. The situation is worsened by the recently recognized rapid sinking of the islands, which was triggered by the 2009 Samoa earthquake and is predicted to last for decades....
Southern California / Channel Islands - Topobathymetric Elevation Model of the Channel Islands
Located in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, the Channel Islands are a chain of eight islands where years of isolation has created unique fauna, flora, and archeological resources. Five of the islands are part of Channel Islands National Park (Anacapa, Santa Cruz, Santa Rosa, San Miguel, and Santa Barbara), and the waters surrounding these islands make up the Channel Islands...
Topobathymetric Elevation Model of San Francisco Bay Area, California
Accurate, high-resolution elevation information is vital to understanding the natural hazards that can impact the highly populated San Francisco Bay area, such as sea-level rise, winter storms, cliff erosion, and other coastal hazards. The San Francisco Bay estuary three-dimensional (3D) topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) was developed in collaboration between U.S. Geological...
Topobathymetric Elevation Model of Outer Banks and Pamlico Sound, North Carolina
Pamlico Sound is ecologically important as it is the second largest estuary in the United States, and is the largest lagoon on the U.S. east coast. The sound is separated from the Atlantic Ocean by the Outer Banks, a series of low, sandy barrier islands that are vulnerable to hurricane storm surge and sea-level rise. The seamless high-resolution topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM)...
Topobathymetric Elevation Model of Northern Gulf of Mexico
Accurate, high-resolution elevation information is vital to understanding the highly dynamic northern Gulf of Mexico coast, the location of North America’s largest delta system and the focus of one of the largest coastal restoration and flood risk reduction efforts in the United States. The northern Gulf of Mexico topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) was developed in collaboration...
Topobathymetric Elevation Model of Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands
With an estimated elevation of only 3-meters above sea level, the Majuro Atoll, capital of the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), is extremely vulnerable to sea-level rise, tsunamis, storm surge, and coastal flooding that could impact the sustainability of the infrastructure, groundwater, and ecosystems. Located in the northern tropical Pacific Ocean, the waters surrounding the Majuro...
Topobathymetric Elevation Model of Mobile Bay, Alabama
Mobile Bay is ecologically important as it is the fourth largest estuary in the United States. The Mobile Bay topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) was developed in collaboration between U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program (CMGP) and USGS National Geospatial Program (NGP) using a combination of 71 disparate topographic and bathymetric datasets collected...
Hurricane Sandy Region - Topobathymetric Elevation Model of New Jersey / Delaware
Hurricane Sandy severely impacted the New Jersey/Delaware coast, altering the topography and ecosystems of this heavily populated region. In response to the storm, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program in collaboration with USGS National Geospatial Program , and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration developed three-dimensional (3D) topobathymetric...
Hurricane Sandy Region - Topobathymetric Elevation Model of New England
Hurricane Sandy significantly impacted coastal New England from Connecticut to as far north as Maine altering the topography and ecosystems of this heavily populated region that includes both New York and Boston. In response to the storm, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Coastal and Marine Geology Program in collaboration with USGS National Geospatial Program, and National Oceanic and...
Shoreline Definition in Emergent Wetland Environments
Coastal shoreline mapping is a particularly complex issue because of the dynamic nature of water levels at the land-water interface, the various tidal vertical datums in use, and the spatial scale of the shoreline delineation. In addition, the definition of a shoreline varies depending on whether the shoreline will be used for nautical charts and navigation, delineating the legal federal and...
Topobathymetric Model for the Southern Coast of California and the Channel Islands, 1930 to 2014
To support the modeling of storm-induced flooding, the USGS Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) Applications Project has created an integrated 1-meter topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) for the Southern California Coast and Channel Islands.
Topobathymetric Model for the Central Coast of California, 1929 to 2017
To support the modeling of storm-induced flooding, the USGS Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) Applications Project has created an integrated 1-meter topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) for the Central California Coast. High-resolution coastal elevation data is required to identify flood, hurricane, and sea-level rise inundation hazard zones and other earth scie
One Meter Topobathymetric Digital Elevation Model for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1944-2016.
Located in the western Pacific Ocean, Majuro is a large coral atoll consisting of a large, central narrow land mass and remote islands that are part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The waters surrounding the Majuro Atoll land areas are relatively shallow with poorly mapped bathymetry. However, the Pacific Ocean on the exterior of the coral atoll and the lagoon within its interior c...
Inundation exposure assessment for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands using a high-accuracy digital elevation model
Majuro Atoll in the central Pacific has high coastal vulnerability due to low-lying islands, rising sea level, high wave events, eroding shorelines, a dense population center, and limited freshwater resources. Land elevation is the primary geophysical variable that determines exposure to inundation in coastal settings. Accordingly, coastal...
Gesch, Dean B.; Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Fletcher, Charles; Kottermair, Maria; Barbee, Matthew; Jalandoni, Andrea General external uncertainty models of three-plane intersection point for 3D absolute accuracy assessment of lidar point cloud
The traditional practice to assess accuracy in lidar data involves calculating RMSEz (root mean square error of the vertical component). Accuracy assessment of lidar point clouds in full 3D (dimension) is not routinely performed. The main challenge in assessing accuracy in full 3D is how to identify a conjugate point of a ground-surveyed...
Kim, Minsu; Park, Seonkyung; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Irwin, Jeffrey; Stensaas, Gregory L.; Stoker, Jason M.; Nimetz, Joshua
Coastal National Elevation Database
The Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) Applications Project develops enhanced topographic (land elevation) and bathymetric (water depth) datasets that serve as valuable resources for coastal hazards research (Danielson and others, 2016; Thatcher and others, 2016). These datasets are used widely for mapping inundation zones from riverine...
Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Poppenga, Sandra K.; Tyler, Dean J.; Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Gesch, Dean B.
Evaluating the potential for near-shore bathymetry on the Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, using Landsat 8 and WorldView-3 imagery
Satellite-derived near-shore bathymetry (SDB) is becoming an increasingly important method for assessing vulnerability to climate change and natural hazards in low-lying atolls of the northern tropical Pacific Ocean. Satellite imagery has become a cost-effective means for mapping near-shore bathymetry because ships cannot collect soundings safely...
Poppenga, Sandra K.; Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Gesch, Dean B.; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Tyler, Dean J.
One-meter topobathymetric digital elevation model for Majuro Atoll, Republic of the Marshall Islands, 1944 to 2016
Atoll and island coastal communities are highly exposed to sea-level rise, tsunamis, storm surges, rogue waves, king tides, and the occasional combination of multiple factors, such as high regional sea levels, extreme high local tides, and unusually strong wave set-up. The elevation of most of these atolls averages just under 3 meters (m), with...
Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Poppenga, Sandra K.; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Tyler, Dean J.; Gesch, Dean B.; Kottermair, Maria; Jalandoni, Andrea; Carlson, Edward; Thatcher, Cindy A.; Barbee, Matthew M. Topobathymetric elevation model development using a new methodology: Coastal National Elevation Database
During the coming decades, coastlines will respond to widely predicted sea-level rise, storm surge, and coastalinundation flooding from disastrous events. Because physical processes in coastal environments are controlled by the geomorphology of over-the-land topography and underwater bathymetry, many applications of geospatial data in coastal...
Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Poppenga, Sandra K.; Brock, John; Evans, Gayla A.; Tyler, Dean J.; Gesch, Dean B.; Thatcher, Cindy A.; Barras, John Creating a Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) for science and conservation applications
The U.S. Geological Survey is creating the Coastal National Elevation Database, an expanding set of topobathymetric elevation models that extend seamlessly across coastal regions of high societal or ecological significance in the United States that are undergoing rapid change or are threatened by inundation hazards. Topobathymetric elevation...
Thatcher, Cindy A.; Brock, John; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Poppenga, Sandra K.; Gesch, Dean B.; Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Barras, John; Evans, Gayla A.; Gibbs, Ann Lidar-based mapping of flood control levees in south Louisiana
Flood protection in south Louisiana is largely dependent on earthen levees, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the state’s levee system has received intense scrutiny. Accurate elevation data along the levees are critical to local levee district managers responsible for monitoring and maintaining the extensive system of non-federal levees in...
Thatcher, Cindy A.; Lim, Samsung; Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Kimbrow, Dustin R. Automatic delineation of seacliff limits using lidar-derived high-resolution DEMs in southern California
Seacliff erosion is a serious hazard with implications for coastal management and is often estimated using successive hand-digitized cliff tops or bases (toe) to assess cliff retreat. Even if efforts are made to standardize manual digitizing and eliminate subjectivity, the delineation of cliffs is time-consuming and depends on the analyst's...
Palaseanu-Lovejoy, Monica; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Thatcher, Cindy A.; Foxgrover, Amy C.; Barnard, Patrick L.; Brock, John; Young, Adam Validation of the ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model version 3 over the conterminous United States
The ASTER Global Digital Elevation Model Version 3 (GDEM v3) was evaluated over the conterminous United States in a manner similar to the validation conducted for the original GDEM Version 1 (v1) in 2009 and GDEM Version 2 (v2) in 2011. The absolute vertical accuracy of GDEM v3 was calculated by comparison with more than 23,000 independent...
Halounova, L; Šafář, V.; Jiang, J.; Olešovská, H.; Dvořáček, P.; Holland, D.; Seredovich, V.A.; Muller, J.P.; Pattabhi Rama Rao, E.; Veenendaal, B.; Mu, L.; Zlatanova, S.; Oberst, J.; Yang, C.P.; Ban, Y.; Stylianidis, S.; Voženílek, V.; Vondráková, A.; Gartner, G.; Remondino, F.; Doytsher, Y.; Percivall, George; Schreier, G.; Dowman, I.; Streilein, A.; Ernst, J.; Gesch, Dean B.; Oimoen, Michael J.; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Meyer, David
Hydrologic enforcement of lidar DEMs
Hydrologic-enforcement (hydro-enforcement) of light detection and ranging (lidar)-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) modifies the elevations of artificial impediments (such as road fills or railroad grades) to simulate how man-made drainage structures such as culverts or bridges allow continuous downslope flow. Lidar-derived DEMs contain an...
Poppenga, Sandra K.; Worstell, Bruce B.; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Brock, John; Evans, Gayla A.; Heidemann, H. Karl A new map of global ecological land units—An ecophysiographic stratification approach
In response to the need and an intergovernmental commission for a high resolution and data-derived global ecosystem map, land surface elements of global ecological pattern were characterized in an ecophysiographic stratification of the planet. The stratification produced 3,923 terrestrial ecological land units (ELUs) at a base resolution of 250...
Sayre, Roger; Dangermond, Jack; Frye, Charlie; Vaughan, Randy; Aniello, Peter; Breyer, Sean P.; Cribbs, Douglas; Hopkins, Dabney; Nauman, Richard; Derrenbacher, William; Wright, Dawn J.; Brown, Clint; Convis, Charles; Smith, Jonathan H.; Benson, Laurence; VanSistine, D. Paco; Warner, Harumi; Cress, Jill Janene; Danielson, Jeffrey J.; Hamann, Sharon L.; Cecere, Thomas; Reddy, Ashwan D.; Burton, Devon; Grosse, Andrea; True, Diane; Metzger, Marc; Hartmann, Jens; Moosdorf, Nils; Durr, Hans; Paganini, Marc; Defourny, Pierre; Arino, Olivier; Maynard, Simone; Anderson, Mark; Comer, Patrick
CoNED Measures Elevation, Helps Model Inundation Scenarios at Hawaiian Cultural Site
In the land of Kamehameha, south of Kona on the big island of Hawaii, a sacred landscape called Puʻuhonua O Hōnaunau faces the uncertainty of the rising seas.
The bones of royal chiefs rest there. Stories of how ancient Hawaiian lawbreakers flocked to this place of refuge still resonate throughout the 180-acre national historic park that surrounds Hōnaunau Bay.
Advances in Topobathymetric Mapping
In coastal environments, elevation is perhaps the most fundamental variable determining vulnerability. Accurate high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) that show both land and submerged topography (bathymetry) are key in coastal wetlands mapping and monitoring, storm surge and sea-level-rise modeling, benthic habitat mapping, coral reef-ecosystem mapping, and a host of related...