3DEP in West Virginia by the Numbers

Expected annual benefits $2.65 million 

Estimated total cost $8.10 million

Payback 3.1 years

Quality level 1 buy-up 

estimate

$5.15 million

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2015–3017 

March 2015

The 3D Elevation Program—Summary for West Virginia

Introduction

Elevation data are essential to a broad 

range of applications, including forest 

resources management, wildlife and habitat 

management, national security, recreation, 

and many others. For the State of West 

Virginia, elevation data are critical for 

natural resources conservation, flood risk 

management, forest resources management, 

infrastructure and construction management, 

agriculture and precision farming, and 

other business uses. Today, high-density 

light detection and ranging (lidar) data are 

the primary sources for deriving elevation 

models and other datasets. Federal, State, 

Tribal, and local agencies work in partnership to (1) replace data that are older and 

of lower quality and (2) provide coverage 

where publicly accessible data do not exist. 

A joint goal of State and Federal partners is 

to acquire consistent, statewide coverage to 

support existing and emerging applications 

enabled by lidar data. 

The National Enhanced Elevation 

Assessment (NEEA; Dewberry, 2011) 

evaluated multiple elevation data acquisition 

options to determine the optimal data quality and data replacement cycle relative to 

cost to meet the identified requirements 

of the user community. The evaluation 

demonstrated that lidar acquisition at quality 

level 2 (table 1) for the conterminous United 

States and quality level 5 interferometric 

synthetic aperture radar (ifsar) data (table 1) 

for Alaska with a 6- to 10-year acquisition 

cycle provided the highest benefit/cost 

ratios. The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) 

initiative (Snyder, 2012a,b) selected an 

8-year acquisition cycle for the respective 

quality levels. 3DEP, managed by the U.S. 

Geological Survey (USGS), the Office of 

Management and Budget Circular A–16 

lead agency for terrestrial elevation data, 

responds to the growing need for highquality topographic data and a wide range 

of other 3D representations of the Nation’s 

natural and constructed features.

3D Elevation Program Benefits 

for West Virginia

The top 10 West Virginia business uses 

for 3D elevation data, which are based on 

the estimated annual conservative benefits 

of the 3DEP initiative, are shown in table 2. 

The NEEA survey respondents in the State 

of West Virginia estimated that the national 

3DEP initiative would result in at least 

$2.6 million in new benefits annually to the 

State. The cost for such a program in West 

Virginia is approximately $8.1 million, 

resulting in a payback period of 3.1 years 

and a benefit/cost ratio of 2.6 to 1 over an 

8-year period. Because monetary estimates 

were not provided for all reported benefits, 

the total benefits of the 3DEP to West 

Virginia are likely much higher. On the 

basis of the NEEA survey results, all levels 

of government and many organizations in 

West Virginia could benefit from access to 

statewide high-resolution elevation data.

For West Virginia, approximately 

72 percent of the identified business 

use requirements will be met in natural 

resources conservation and flood risk management uses, as shown in table 2. The status of publicly available lidar data in West 

Virginia is shown in figure 1. By enhancing 

coordination between 3DEP and various 

government and private organizations in 

West Virginia, it may be possible to realize 

3D Elevation Program

3DEP is a national program managed 

by the USGS to acquire high-resolution 

elevation data. The initiative is backed by a 

comprehensive assessment of requirements 

(Dewberry, 2011) and is in the early stages 

of implementation. 3DEP will improve 

data accuracy and provide more current 

data than is available in the National 

Elevation Dataset (NED). The goal of this 

high-priority cooperative program is to 

be operational by early 2015, and to have 

complete coverage of the United States 

by the end of 2022, depending on funding 

and partnerships. 3DEP can conservatively 

provide new benefits of $1.2 billion/year 

and has the potential to generate $13 billion/year in new benefits through improved 

government services, reductions in crop 

and homeowner losses resulting from 

floods, more efficient routing of vehicles, 

and a host of other government, corporate, 

and citizen activities (Dewberry, 2011). A 

shared, common elevation dataset would 

foster cooperation and improve decisionmaking among all levels of government and 

other stakeholders.

Benefits of a Funded National Program

• Economy of scale—Acquisition of 

data covering larger areas reduces 

costs by 25 percent.

• A systematic plan—Acquisition of 

data at a higher quality level reduces 

the cost of “buying up” to the highest 

levels needed by State and local 

governments.

• Higher quality data and national 

coverage—Ensure consistency for 

applications that span State and watershed boundaries and meet more needs, 

which results in increased benefits 

to citizens.

• Increase in Federal agency contributions—Reduces State and local partner 

contributions.

• Acquisition assistance—Provided 

through readily available contracts and 

published acquisition specifications.

Figure 1. Map of West Virginia showing 

publicly available lidar data. Information 

source is the United States Interagency 

Elevation Inventory, June 2014 (http://coast.

noaa.gov/inventory/?redirect=301ocm#), 

which is updated annually. No data that 

meet 3DEP requirements for quality 

level 2 or better are publicly available 

for West Virginia. See table 1 for quality 

level information. 

EXPLANATION

Quality level 3 data

Quality level 4 or

lower data

No publicly available

lidar data

0 40 Kilometers

0 20 Miles
Next Steps for Implementing 3DEP

Accomplishing the 3DEP initiative’s 

goal of national coverage in 8 years depends 

on the following factors:

• Increased partnerships among Federal, 

State, Tribal, and local governments. 

• Partnerships that acquire elevation data 

to the program’s specifications across 

larger project areas.

• Increased communication about and 

awareness of the program’s benefits 

and goals.

• Support for the program from government and other stakeholders.

For Further Information:

Director

USGS National Geospatial Program

12201 Sunrise Valley Drive, MS 511

Reston, VA 20192

Email: 3DEP@usgs.gov

Craig A. Neidig 

The National Map Liaison

11 Dunbar Street 

Charleston, WV 25301

Email: cneidig@usgs.gov

http://nationalmap.gov/3DEP/

By William J. Carswell, Jr.

more than the cited conservative benefits 

and attain the higher potential benefits for 

many business uses.

The following examples highlight 

how 3DEP data can support business uses 

in West Virginia: (1) Lidar data provide 

high-quality terrain information as input for 

more accurate and less expensive hydrologic 

and hydraulic modeling for flood studies; 

the design of structures such as bridges and 

culverts to accommodate runoff and flooding 

from large rain events; and retention dam 

design, dam breach studies, and stormwater 

management and engineering. Lidar data 

also aid the identification of vulnerable 

properties within a floodplain, facilitating 

better floodplain-management decisions and 

education of the public on true flood risks. 

(2) Geologic hazards, such as slope failures 

(landslides), active faults, abandoned 

mines, and sinkholes in karst terrain can 

be hidden or obscured by heavy vegetation 

or forest cover, making them difficult to 

identify and locate. With the availability of 

lidar bare-earth imagery, a detailed view 

of the earth’s surface without vegetation 

is possible, allowing for the identification 

and systematic mapping of these features, 

which can support geologic risk assessment, 

hazard mitigation, land use planning, and 

the site selection process for industry and 

commerce. For example, bare-earth lidar 

digital elevation models and slope-shade 

maps can be used to identify diverse anthropogenic (human impacted) landforms generally related to mining, roads, and railroads 

(fig. 2). The largest anthropogenic landforms 

tend to be unreclaimed strip-mine benches. 

The near-vertical high walls above and 

angle-of-repose fill slopes below the mining 

benches are potentially unstable; thus, these 

landforms commonly contribute to landslides within the New River Gorge National 

River in southern West Virginia.

References Cited

Dewberry, 2011, Final report of the National 

Enhanced Elevation Assessment (revised 

2012): Fairfax, Va., Dewberry, 84 p. 

plus appendixes, http://www.dewberry.

com/Consultants/GeospatialMapping/

FinalReport-NationalEnhancedElevation

Assessment.

Snyder, G.I., 2012a, National Enhanced 

Elevation Assessment at a glance: U.S. 

Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2012–3088, 

2 p., http://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3088/.

Snyder, G.I., 2012b, The 3D Elevation 

Program—Summary of program 

direction: U.S. Geological Survey 

Fact Sheet 2012–3089, 2 p., http://

pubs.usgs.gov/fs/2012/3089/.

ISSN 2327-6932 (online)

http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/fs20153017

LS

LS

LS

LS

LS

Strip mine

LS

LS

LS

Railroad

Roads

200 FT0 

0 100 M

3D Elevation Program—Continued

The USGS and its partners will 

acquire quality level 2 or better (table 1) 

3D lidar data over the conterminous United 

States, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories. 

Interferometric synthetic aperture radar 

(ifsar) data are being collected at quality 

level 5 (table 1) in Alaska. The data will 

be acquired over an 8-year period and 

will be made available to the public. By 

using this acquisition scenario a number of 

high-quality elevation-data products can be 

created to serve a wide range of business 

uses in government and the private sector.

Figure 2. Bare earth imagery allows for the 

identification of landslides (LS) within the New 

River Gorge National River park, southern 

West Virginia. Black lines bounding a strip 

mine, roads, and a railroad show the extent 

of disturbed ground associated with these 

features. Image courtesy of Marla K. Yates and 

Stephen J. Kite, Department of Geology and 

Geography, West Virginia University. 

Table 2. Conservative benefits estimates for the top 10 business uses of the proposed

3DEP data identified in the National Enhanced Elevation Assessment for West Virginia

 (Dewberry, 2011).

Rank Business use Annual benefits

(millions)

1 Natural resources conservation $0.97

2 Flood risk management 0.95

3 Forest resources management 0.21

4 Infrastructure and construction management 0.17

5 Agriculture and precision farming 0.12

6 Geologic resource assessment and hazard mitigation 0.10

7 Water supply and quality 0.05

8 Aviation navigation and safety 0.05

9 River and stream resource management 0.01

10 Renewable energy resources 0.01

Other 0.01

Total 2.65

Table 1. Data quality levels and related 

accuracies for the 3D Elevation Program 

(3DEP) initiative are provided on page 6 in 

USGS Circular 1399 (http://dx.doi.org/10.3133/

cir1399 ). These data quality parameters for 

the 3DEP initiative approximate those used in 

the National Enhanced Elevation Assessment 

(Dewberry, 2011).

[RMSE(z), root mean square error in the z

(elevation) dimension; n/a, not applicable]

Quality 

level

Nominal pulse 

spacing

(meters)

Vertical error 

as RMSE(z)

(centimeters)

1 0.35 10

2 0.7 10

3 2.0 20

4 n/a 139

5 n/a 185