Southern Louisiana 1/3 arc-second MHW DEM

Modeling and mapping of coastal processes (e.g. tsunamis, hurricane storm-surge, and sea-level rise) requires digital representations of Earth's solid surface, referred to as digital elevation models (DEMs). Some modeling utilizes structured, square-cell DEMs, while others utilize unstructured grids that have no regular cell size or pattern. Usually, these different DEM types are developed independently, even though they are built from the same source bathymetric and topographic datasets. The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has developed two bathymetric-topographic square-celled DEMs and one bathymetric-topographic unstructured DEM of southern Louisiana. The DEMs were developed for the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP), with the purpose of developing a new methodology for unstructured grid production from structured square-celled grids. The 1/3 arc-second DEM referenced to North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88) was carefully developed and evaluated. A NAVD 88 to mean high water (MHW) 1/3 arc-second conversion grid derived from VDatum project areas was created to model the relationship between NAVD 88 and MHW in the southern Louisiana region. NGDC combined the NAVD 88 DEM and the conversion grid to develop a 1/3 arc-second MHW DEM. The NAVD 88 DEM was generated from diverse digital datasets in the region. The DEMs were developed to be used for storm surge inundation and sea level rise modeling. The source bathymetric and topographic datasets used in the development of the NAVD 88 DEM were utilized along with the NAVD 88 DEM and derivative grids to develop the NAVD 88 unstructured DEM.

Data and Resources

Field	Value
accessLevel	public
accrualPeriodicity	irregular
bureauCode	{006:48}
catalog_@context	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
catalog_conformsTo	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
catalog_describedBy	https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
identifier	gov.noaa.ngdc.mgg.dem:742
language	{en-US}
modified	2012-01-28
old-spatial	{"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-91.6, 28.6], [-89.8, 28.6], [-89.8, 29.7], [-91.6, 29.7], [-91.6, 28.6]]]}
programCode	{006:059}
publisher	DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce (Point of Contact)
resource-type	Dataset
source_datajson_identifier	true
source_hash	e14a6d8750ef445bf4e2a3e172e056652f355308
source_schema_version	1.1
spatial	{"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-91.6, 28.6], [-89.8, 28.6], [-89.8, 29.7], [-91.6, 29.7], [-91.6, 28.6]]]}
temporal	1888-01-01T00:00:00/2010-01-01T00:00:00
Groups	AmeriGEOSS National Provider North America
Tags	amerigeo amerigeoss boulder boulder-world-data-center-for-marine-geology-and-geophysics ckan coastal-relief continent-north-america-united-states-of-america-louisiana dem-digital-elevation-model doc-noaa-nesdis-ngdc-national-geophysical-data-center earth-science-land-surface-topography-terrain-elevation earth-science-land-surface-topography-topographical-relief earth-science-oceans-bathymetry-seafloor-topography-bathymetry earth-science-oceans-bathymetry-seafloor-topography-seafloor-topography earth-science-oceans-bathymetry-seafloor-topography-water-depth earth-science-oceans-coastal-processes-coastal-elevation geo geoss gridded-elevations h-1-meter-30-meters integrated-bathymetry-and-topography national nesdis noaa north-america ocean-atlantic-ocean-gulf-of-mexico south-louisiana u-s-department-of-commerce united-states v-1-meter vertical-location-land-surface vertical-location-sea-floor wdc-mgg
isopen	False
license_id	notspecified
license_title	License not specified
maintainer	DOC/NOAA/NESDIS/NGDC > National Geophysical Data Center, NESDIS, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce
maintainer_email	dem.info@noaa.gov
metadata_created	2025-11-22T18:24:29.319867
metadata_modified	2025-11-22T18:24:29.319871
notes	Modeling and mapping of coastal processes (e.g. tsunamis, hurricane storm-surge, and sea-level rise) requires digital representations of Earth's solid surface, referred to as digital elevation models (DEMs). Some modeling utilizes structured, square-cell DEMs, while others utilize unstructured grids that have no regular cell size or pattern. Usually, these different DEM types are developed independently, even though they are built from the same source bathymetric and topographic datasets. The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), has developed two bathymetric-topographic square-celled DEMs and one bathymetric-topographic unstructured DEM of southern Louisiana. The DEMs were developed for the Hurricane Forecast Improvement Project (HFIP), with the purpose of developing a new methodology for unstructured grid production from structured square-celled grids. The 1/3 arc-second DEM referenced to North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88) was carefully developed and evaluated. A NAVD 88 to mean high water (MHW) 1/3 arc-second conversion grid derived from VDatum project areas was created to model the relationship between NAVD 88 and MHW in the southern Louisiana region. NGDC combined the NAVD 88 DEM and the conversion grid to develop a 1/3 arc-second MHW DEM. The NAVD 88 DEM was generated from diverse digital datasets in the region. The DEMs were developed to be used for storm surge inundation and sea level rise modeling. The source bathymetric and topographic datasets used in the development of the NAVD 88 DEM were utilized along with the NAVD 88 DEM and derivative grids to develop the NAVD 88 unstructured DEM.
num_resources	19
num_tags	32
title	Southern Louisiana 1/3 arc-second MHW DEM