The 3D Elevation Program—Flood Risk Management

U.S. Department of the Interior

U.S. Geological Survey

Fact Sheet 2017–3081

January 2018 Printed on recycled paper

Flood Hazard to Flood Risk

Over the last 30 years, on average, 

flooding has cost the United States nearly 

$8 billion annually and has resulted 

in more than 80 fatalities per year, 

according to the National Oceanic and 

Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 

National Weather Service Hydrologic 

Information Center (www.nws.noaa.

gov/hic/) (NOAA, 2015). Flooding is 

the leading cause of Presidential disaster 

declarations.

Flood-damage reduction has been 

a longstanding but elusive societal goal. 

The national strategy for reducing flood 

damage has shifted over recent decades 

from a focus on construction of floodcontrol dams and levee systems to a 

three-pronged strategy to (1) improve the 

design and operation of such structures, 

(2) provide more accurate and accessible flood forecasting, and (3) shift the 

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

(FEMA) National Flood Insurance 

Program (NFIP) to a more balanced, less 

costly flood-insurance paradigm (http://

www.fema.gov/policy-claim-statisticsflood-insurance) (FEMA, 2017). Expanding the availability and use of highquality, three-dimensional (3D) elevation 

information derived from modern light 

detection and ranging (lidar) technologies 

to provide essential terrain data poses 

a singular opportunity to dramatically 

enhance the effectiveness of all three 

components of this strategy.

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) 

3D Elevation Program (3DEP) (Sugarbaker and others, 2014; see 3D Elevation 

Program sidebar) has the programmatic 

infrastructure to produce and provide the 

essential terrain data. This infrastructure 

includes (1) data acquisition partnerships that leverage funding and reduce 

duplicative efforts, (2) contracts with 

experienced private mapping firms that 

ensure acquisition of consistent, low-cost 

3D elevation data, and (3) the technical 

expertise, standards, and specifications 

required for consistent, edge-to-edge 

utility across multiple collection platforms 

and public access unfettered by individual 

database designs and limitations.

Flood risk management was identified by the National Enhanced Elevation 

Assessment (Dewberry, 2012) as one 

of 27 business uses requiring enhanced 

elevation data. The assessment cited that 

some of the uses of 3D elevation data for 

the flood risk management business use 

include: 

• Enabling the production of much 

higher quality flood maps (fig. 1), 

including documentation studies and 

Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs).

• Managing dam and levee safety programs that reduce flood risks.

Figure 1. U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) flood-inundation maps for a 3.95-mile reach of the 

Saluda River near Greenville, South Carolina, originating approximately 150 feet downstream 

from Saluda Lake Dam. A lidar-derived digital elevation model was used to aid in hydraulic 

modeling to create these maps. The extent of inundation depicted corresponds to river 

stages of 20.0 feet (A) and 6.0 feet (B) at USGS streamgage 02162500 (yellow triangle) on the 

Saluda River. The red line corresponds to the model extent.

A B

A flood-inundation map minimally shows the extent of flooding for a stream 

reach and also includes depths of floodwaters where appropriate (fig. 1). The extent 

and depth of flooding are normally estimated using riverine hydraulic models that 

take into account streamflows, channel geometry, flood-plain topography, and 

artificial structures such as bridges and levees. There are many methods to create 

flood-inundation maps, and they all vary in accuracy and applicability. The USGS has 

developed and enhanced several methods for map creation and display. The USGS 

Flood Inundation Mapping Program is discussed at https://water.usgs.gov/osw/

flood_inundation/
• Improving hydrologic modeling and 

flood forecasting for emergency management.

• Improving State and local government 

risk management and flood response.

• Improving regional and local government emergency management and floodplain and stormwater management.

• Improving the design of stormwater 

drainage facilities and dams.

USGS Streamflow and 3DEP Data 

Support Flood Risk Management

Investments in flood-control measures, flood forecasting, and flood-insurance programs are required for effective 

flood risk management. However, an 

important principle in flood risk management is that flood disasters will continue 

to occur and that residual flood risk will 

always remain despite these investments. 

Nevertheless, disasters can be informative, if society learns the lessons they 

teach. Learning those lessons effectively 

means that floods must be understood and 

documented wherever and whenever they 

occur. An important tool for preserving 

flood information is the flood documentation map. Together, FEMA and the 

USGS have undertaken an extensive, 

though largely piecemeal program that 

involves deployment of USGS stream 

hydrographers to map flood elevations 

and the extent of major floods. 3DEP data 

and tools are crucial for the effective, 

rapid and actionable interpretation of the 

resulting information.

Flood Control

Flood-control structures—dams and 

levee systems—are a major component 

of the national flood-damage reduction 

strategy and they represent a major element of American infrastructure. They 

greatly reduce the frequency of flooding 

and the extent of flood damage within 

the basins where they are located and 

within the constraints of their design. 

Recent calls for infrastructure renewal 

will require better understanding of flood 

hazards and more accurate, quantifiable 

estimates of flood risks with which to 

update existing structures and design 

new ones. USGS streamflow information 

(https://www.usgs.gov/science/missionareas/water/groundwater-and-streamflowinformation?qt-programs_l2_landing_

page=0#qt-programs_l2_landing_page) 

and flood-magnitude predictive equations as presented in USGS StreamStats 

(https://water.usgs.gov/osw/streamstats/) 

need to be improved and extended to 

provide these estimates. Longer periods 

of flood records and high-resolution, 

detailed basin-characteristics data are 

the primary drivers of such improvements. Where they are available, 3DEP 

data already comprise important source 

inputs for more accurate equations. For 

this reason, increasing the availability of 

3DEP data could lead to major improvements in the estimating of floods and 

associated flood risks, and in the design 

and renewal of flood-control structures 

and the hundreds of thousands of miles 

of storm sewers and culverts that are 

needed to convey floodwaters away from 

inhabited areas.

Flood Forecasting

The second major element of the 

national flood-damage reduction strategy 

is improved flood forecasting. Historically, the National Weather Service 

(NWS) has provided flood forecasts for 

some 4,000 locations based on NWS 

rainfall-runoff models driven by NWS 

rainfall forecasts and USGS streamflow 

data. But the forecasts typically feature 

predictions of the magnitude and timing of flood flows, which are difficult 

for most citizens and many emergency 

managers to understand and use effectively. Fortunately, the USGS and the 

NWS have developed flood-inundation 

map tools (https://water.usgs.gov/osw/

flood_inundation/) (U.S. Geological 

Survey, 2016) that convert such information into understandable, actionable 

maps that describe the evolving extent 

of a flood, hour-by-hour, street-by-street, 

and house-by-house. All of this work, 

however, requires highly detailed terrain 

and structure location data of the nature 

and quality that only lidar technologies 

can provide and for which 3DEP is 

ideally suited (fig. 2). The National Water 

Model by the NWS greatly scales-up the 

benefits of flood-inundation mapping; the 

model uses data from more than 8,100 

USGS streamgages and forecasts flood 

flows for some 2.7 million stream reaches 

of the National Hydrography Dataset 

Plus. A substantial and sustained national 

rollout of flood-inundation mapping 

powered by 3DEP and coupled with the 

National Water Model could lead to better and more impactful flood-forecasting 

throughout the Nation, at substantial 

savings.

Flood Insurance

The third major element of the 

national flood-damage reduction strategy is the FEMA National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP). In exchange for 

Figure 2. A 3D Elevation Program lidar point cloud colored by RGB color from imagery from 

the National Agriculture Imagery Program and showing simulated flooding (in blue) of an 

area in Denver, Colorado. Image courtesy of Jason M. Stoker, U.S. Geological Survey.
 

0 75 150 Kilometers

0 75 150 Miles

TEXAS LOUISIANA

MISSISSIPPI ALABAMA

FLORIDA

Beaumont Lafayette

Baton Rouge

New Orleans

Mobile

Coastal economic 

 vulnerability index

Very low

Low

Moderate

High

Very high

EXPLANATION

N hydrologic and hydraulic analyses, and 

rainfall and topographic surveys.

Flood documentation studies—

Flood documentation studies, typically 

containing maps, record the extent of a 

particular flood event to support where 

immediate flood response should be 

focused. They also inform where future 

flood-plain planning is needed and 

evaluate the need for future more detailed 

flood-plain study, and they can be used to 

support flood insurance claims.

Flood-inundation map libraries—

Flood-inundation maps that are tied to 

USGS real-time streamgage data and 

to NWS flood forecasts enable officials 

to make operational and public-safety 

decisions hours, or even days, prior to 

flooding and during the event on a streetby-street, block-by-block basis. A library 

is a series of consecutive maps showing 

the extent of flooding at increasing flood 

elevations, typically created at one-foot 

to two-foot stream stage intervals.

Examples of Federal, State, and local 

collaboration

The following are examples of 

Federal, State, and local collaboration in 

assessing, documenting, and communicating flood risk information associated 

with damage from floods and hurricanes.

Figure 3. Example of a flood-risk product that is enhanced with lidar information. The 

vulnerability of human populations and infrastructure to projected increases in sea level can 

be delineated when lidar-derived, high-quality digital elevation models are available for use 

in the analysis. Modified from Thatcher and others (2013).

communities adopting and enforcing 

flood-plain land-use regulations and 

developmental restrictions designed to 

limit future flood damage, community 

residents are given the option to purchase NFIP-sponsored flood insurance. 

However, traditional NFIP Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) identify the 

flood plain as the area encompassing the 

extent of the 1-percent-chance flood (as 

determined through analysis of USGS 

flood data and StreamStats equations or 

rainfall-runoff model studies). Almost all 

of the properties within the flood plain 

are charged for insurance at rates that are 

more or less the same regardless of the 

actual flood risk to which a property is 

exposed, including the most risky subset 

of properties that have been repeatedly 

damaged by floods only to be rebuilt. In 

response, FEMA developed the RiskMAP 

program to usher in a series of administrative and technical reforms to improve 

program performance.

Congress, through the BiggertWaters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 

2012 (Public Law 112-141, 6 July 2012, 

125 Stat. 916), codified many of the RiskMAP reforms, re-established the FEMA 

Technical Mapping Advisory Council 

(TMAC) (FEMA, 2014), and charged 

FEMA with improving the flood insurance process and increasing the accuracy 

and reliability of flood-plain maps. The 

TMAC has offered numerous recommendations for program improvement. The 

two most important are (1) for FEMA 

to transform flood-plain mapping into 

a digital process and (2) to base flood 

insurance premiums on structure-specific 

(that is, individual houses and buildings) 

flood risk. Both recommendations are 

formulated around the anticipated widespread availability and use of 3DEP data 

and products. Coupled with other TMAC 

recommendations and FEMA initiatives, 

these recommendations could revolutionize the flood insurance process and 

induce flood-threatened communities and 

individuals alike to take urgently needed, 

damage-mitigating actions.

Assessing, Documenting, and 

Communicating Flood Risk 

Information

High-quality elevation data, like that 

collected through 3DEP, are invaluable 

for assessing and documenting flood risk 

and communicating detailed information to both responders and planners 

alike (fig. 3). Multiple flood-mapping 

programs make use of USGS streamflow 

and 3DEP data (fig. 4). Flood insurance 

rate maps, flood documentation studies, 

and flood-inundation map libraries are 

products of these programs.

Flood Insurance Rate Maps—

FEMA’s flood hazard mapping program, 

RiskMAP, identifies flood hazards, 

assesses flood risks, and partners with 

States and communities to take actions 

that reduce flood risk. Flood hazard mapping is an important part of the NFIP, as it 

is the basis of that program’s flood-plain 

management and flood insurance requirements. FEMA maintains and updates data 

through FIRMs and risk assessments. 

FIRMs include statistical information 

such as data for river flow, storm tides, 

Figure 4. The Coleman Bridge spanning 

the York River between Gloucester Point 

and Yorktown, Virginia. In this view at 

Gloucester Point, floodwater covers a park 

and parking lot in the foreground, and in the 

distance waves can be seen breaking over 

the riverbank. USGS 3DEP and streamflow 

data help with mapping and increasing 

awareness of floods like these. Photograph 

courtesy of Virginia Institute of Marine 

Science.
Flood Insurance Rate Maps—North 

Carolina began collecting lidar data in 

2000 that allowed the State to increase 

the number of flood studies with minimal 

program cost impacts. This allowed the 

completion of flood maps that depicted 

the special flood-hazard areas defined as 

the 100- and 500-year flood hazard zones 

for North Carolina. From 2000 to 2008 

the flood-plain mapping program conducted hydrologic and hydraulic studies 

on nearly 27,000 miles of streams, rivers, 

and coastline. From these studies the 

State has established 305,530 base flood 

elevations and generated 8,609 FIRMs.

In 2014, North Carolina began collecting higher quality (quality level 2; 

see 3D Elevation Program sidebar) lidar 

data to further modernize the flood mapping program and to move from hazard 

identification to risk assessment and 

identification. With the introduction of 

the new digital flood maps it is possible 

to determine flooding risk for individual 

structures (fig. 5) (see http://fris.nc.gov/

fris) (North Carolina Floodplain Mapping 

Program [2016?]). The goal is for the 

population to understand the impact of 

floods at their location. The high-quality 

surface terrain shown on the maps allows 

citizens to make wise decisions about 

their homes, their savings, and their 

future.

Hurricane Sandy flood documentation map—In late October 2012, Hurricane Sandy blew ashore in New Jersey, 

causing record flooding there and in 

New York (fig. 6) and elsewhere in the 

Northeast. Immediately following the 

storm, USGS crews collected highwater-mark data that were combined 

with high-resolution lidar data (McCallum and others, 2013). The resulting 

high-quality flood documentation maps 

allowed FEMA to quickly ascertain damage levels to specific homes and disburse 

immediately needed funds much faster 

than ever before. This event demonstrated 

the enormous and unique value of postflood documentation maps. The USGS 

and FEMA have continued to develop 

and use this kind of map in subsequent 

major inland and coastal floods, including 

the August 2016 flood in Baton Rouge, 

Louisiana.

Saline River flood-inundation 

map—The Saline River is a tributary to 

the Ohio River in southern Illinois that, 

until a few years ago, had a very large 

flood problem and no available lidar 

data. The USGS initially completed a 

pilot flood-inundation map library with 

30-meter-resolution elevation data. The 

maps were rough, but detailed enough to 

show the community which areas were at 

risk. In fact, the maps were so useful that 

the community acquired lidar data the 

next year and the USGS recomputed all 

the mapping to a much higher, 10-meter 

resolution (Murphy and others, 2012). 

The higher resolution maps are allowing 

the community to plan for and respond 

more effectively to floods.

Benefits of 3D Elevation Data

The benefits that can be realized by 

flood hazards mapping agencies and the 

industries that depend on this information are significant. Improved elevation 

data, in part, leads to improved flood risk 

products, which enables more informed 

3D Elevation Program (3DEP)

The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) 

is a program managed by the USGS to 

acquire high-resolution elevation data 

for the Nation (Sugarbaker and others, 

2014). It produces point clouds, bareearth digital elevation models (DEMs), 

and other products.

3DEP is backed by a comprehensive assessment of light detection 

and ranging (lidar), interferometric 

synthetic aperture radar (IfSAR), and 

related elevation data requirements 

(Dewberry, 2012). The goal of this 

high-priority cooperative program is to 

acquire complete coverage of quality 

level 2 lidar data for the conterminous 

United States, Hawaii, and the U.S. 

territories, and IfSAR data for Alaska, 

by the end of 2023.

Reduced Acquisition Costs and Risks

A funded national program will 

provide the following:

• Economy of scale by acquiring data 

for larger areas and reducing acquisition costs by 25 percent.

• Predictable, efficient, and flexible 

Federal investments that reduce 

costs for and allow better planning 

by Federal, State, Tribal, U.S. territorial, and local government partners, 

including the option of “buying up” 

to acquire higher quality data.

• Consistent, high-quality national 

coverage that (1) provides data 

ready for applications that span 

project, jurisdictional, and watershed boundaries, (2) meets multiple 

needs, and (3) increases benefits to 

citizens.

• Simpler data acquisition that 

provides contracts, published 

data-acquisition specifications, and 

specialized quality assurance and 

information technology expertise. 

Partners reduce their risks and 

can concentrate on their business 

activities.

3DEP can conservatively provide 

new benefits of $690 million per year 

and has the potential to generate 

$13 billion per year in new benefits 

through applications that span the 

economy (Dewberry, 2012).

According to the National Academy of Public Administration study completed 

for FEMA’s flood mapping program (National Academy of Public Administration, 

2013)—

“The 3DEP plan for a jointly funded program to collect elevation data systematically on a nationwide basis offers a significantly more cost-effective 

alternative to current piecemeal efforts, and will benefit not only FEMA’s 

flood mapping efforts but also users across the Federal government, as 

well as States and localities.” —Finding 4d (p. 82).

“The 3DEP plan represents an extraordinary interagency effort to develop 

a mechanism for more efficiently funding the collection of a key input to 

more accurate flood mapping as well as other important Federal, State, 

and local mapping activities.” —Discussion on p. 83.

“The Office of Management and Budget should use the 3DEP implementation plan for nationwide elevation data collection to guide the development 

of the President’s annual budget request.” —Recommendation 15 (p. 87).
3D Elevation Program (3DEP)—

Continued

The shared lidar, IfSAR, and derived 

elevation datasets would foster cooperation and improve decisionmaking 

among all levels of government and 

other stakeholders.

High-Quality Data

For the conterminous United 

States, Hawaii, and the U.S. territories, the USGS and its partners 

acquire quality level 2 or better aerial 

lidar data. Quality level 2 data have 

a minimum nominal pulse spacing 

of 0.7 meters and a vertical error of 

10 centimeters, measured as root 

mean square error in the elevation (z) 

dimension (RMSEz). Statewide for 

Alaska, quality level 5 IfSAR data are 

acquired that have a vertical error of 

185 centimeters RMSEz.

The data must have been 

acquired during the previous eight 

years. For more information, see the 

Lidar Base Specification available at 

http://pubs.usgs.gov/tm/11b4/.

Point Cloud and Derived Products

Lidar data products include the 

all-return classified point clouds and 

derived bare-earth DEMs. Each DEM 

dataset is identified by its horizontal 

resolution and is produced to a consistent set of specifications. All DEMs 

represent the topographic surface of 

the Earth and contain flattened water 

surfaces. Nationally seamless DEMs 

are produced by blending only the 

highest quality project data into a continuous terrain surface for the United 

States, and are published at resolutions 

of 1/3 arc-second, 1 arc-second, and 

2 arc-seconds. The standard 1-meter 

DEM dataset is seamless within collection projects but not across projects.

IfSAR data in Alaska include 

digital surface models, orthorectified 

intensity images, and 5-meter-resolution hydro-flattened DEMs.

The USGS integrates the elevation model data into its national elevation data coverage, as a component of 

The National Map. All 3DEP products 

to include an elevation-point query 

service and bulk-point query service 

are components of The National Map.

Figure 5. Lidar data can be used to extract building footprints (in red) and identify the 

finished floor elevation in order to quantify potential damage based on flooding depths and to 

determine if buildings are above the base flood elevation. Image courtesy of John Dorman, 

North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program.

regulatory and development decisions 

and potential reduction in property 

losses. State, Federal, and local agencies that participated in the National 

Enhanced Elevation Assessment study 

(Dewberry, 2012) conservatively identified $295 million in new annual benefits 

attributable to improved elevation data 

for supporting flood hazard mapping. 

Most of these benefits are associated with 

the reduction of property losses.

Maximized Benefits and 

Minimized Risks

3DEP presents opportunities for 

users to maximize the benefits and minimize the risks associated with collecting 

and analyzing mapping terrain data for 

their project. Data that meet the needs of 

the user’s project may already be available through 3DEP. As such, users may 

benefit by taking advantage of previously 

derived product data, or the standardized 

point cloud, to ease or avoid the learning curve associated with processing raw 

lidar data. The user can then begin project 

work immediately.

When new data must be acquired, 

3DEP offers:

• Reduced unit collection costs through 

the possibility of pooled funding with 

other partners and the economy of 

scale that 3DEP acquisition provides.

• Access to qualified and experienced 

firms under contract that acquire and 

process aerial lidar data.

• Programmatic infrastructure that 

issues and manages data acquisition 

contracts, and inspects, accepts, and 

distributes point cloud and derived data 

products.

• Opportunity to “buy up” higher quality 

data for specialized applications.

• Opportunity to receive 3DEP costshare funding to acquire lidar data.

Figure 6. Hurricane Sandy devastated 

Long Island and other coastal areas of New 

York in late October 2012. To effectively 

assist with recovery efforts, the Governor 

created the New York Rising Community 

Reconstruction Program, which recognizes 

lidar data as a critical resource to better 

manage the impacts of catastrophic 

weather events. Photograph courtesy of 

New York State Information Technology 

Services, Geospatial Information Systems 

Program Office.
References Cited

Dewberry, 2012, Final report of the 

National Enhanced Elevation Assessment (rev. March 29, 2012): Fairfax, 

Va., Dewberry, 84 p. plus appendixes, 

accessed June, 12, 2017, at http://www.

dewberry.com/Consultants/GeospatialMapping/FinalReport-NationalEnhancedElevationAssessment.

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

[FEMA], 2014, Technical Mapping 

Advisory Council (TMAC) overview: 

FEMA Informational Bulletin, July 

18, 2014, accessed June 13, 2017, at 

https://www.fema.gov/media-library/

assets/documents/97115.

Federal Emergency Management Agency 

[FEMA], 2017, Policy and claim 

statistics for flood insurance: Federal 

Emergency Management Agency, last 

updated March 6, 2017, accessed June 

12, 2017, at http://www.fema.gov/

policy-claim-statistics-flood-insurance.

McCallum, B.E., Wicklein, S.M., Reiser, 

R.G., Busciolano, Ronald, Morrison, 

Jonathan, Verdi, R.J., Painter, J.A., 

Frantz, E.R., and Gotvald, A.J., 2013, 

Monitoring storm tide and flooding 

from Hurricane Sandy along the Atlantic coast of the United States, October 

2012: U.S. Geological Survey OpenFile Report 2013–1043, 42 p., accessed 

June 12, 2017, at https://pubs.usgs.gov/

of/2013/1043/.

Murphy, E.A., Sharpe, J.B., and Soong, 

D.T., 2012, Ohio River backwater 

flood-inundation maps for the Saline 

and Wabash Rivers in southern Illinois 

(ver. 1.1, September 2014): U.S. Geological Survey Scientific Investigations 

Report 2012–5212, 20 p., accessed 

June 21, 2017, at https://pubs.usgs.gov/

sir/2012/5212.

National Academy of Public Administration, 2013, FEMA flood mapping; 

enhancing coordination to maximize 

performance: Washington, D.C., 

National Academy of Public Administration report, November 8, 2013, 

141 p., accessed July 6, 2016, at 

http://www.napawash.org/2013.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration [NOAA], 2015, 

National Weather Service Hydrologic 

Information Center flood loss data: 

National Oceanic and Atmospheric 

Administration, last modified May 14, 

2015, accessed September 18, 2017, at 

http://www.nws.noaa.gov/hic/.

North Carolina Floodplain Mapping Program, [2016?], Flood Risk Information 

System website, [date of last update 

not determined], accessed January 25, 

2017, at http://fris.nc.gov/fris.

Sugarbaker, L.J., Constance, E.W., 

Heidemann, H.K., Jason, A.L., Lukas, 

Vicki, Saghy, D.L., and Stoker, J.M., 

2014, The 3D Elevation Program 

initiative—A call for action: U.S. 

Geological Survey Circular 1399, 

35 p., accessed June 12, 2017, at 

https://doi.org/10.3133/cir1399.

Thatcher, C.A., Brock, J.C., and 

Pendleton, E.A., 2013, Economic 

vulnerability to sea-level rise along the 

northern U.S. Gulf Coast, in Brock, 

J.C., Barras, J.A., and Williams, S.J., 

eds., Understanding and predicting 

change in the coastal ecosystems of 

the northern Gulf of Mexico: Journal 

of Coastal Research, Special Issue 63, 

p. 234–243, accessed September 

30, 2016, at https://doi.org/10.2112/

SI63-017.1.

U.S. Geological Survey, 2016, Flood 

Inundation Mapping (FIM) Program: 

U.S. Geological Survey, last updated 

February 10, 2016, accessed June 21, 

2017, at https://water.usgs.gov/osw/

flood_inundation/.

3D Elevation Program (3DEP)—

Continued

Data are available, free of charge and 

without use restrictions. To download 

3DEP products visit http://viewer.

nationalmap.gov/basic/.

Ways to Participate

Partners may contribute funds 

toward data acquisition projects managed by the USGS, or they may receive 

cooperative funds to manage their 

own acquisition projects. The Broad 

Agency Announcement process is the 

primary mechanism used to establish 

agreements between partners. For 

more information see the 3DEP website at http://nationalmap.gov/3DEP/

index.html. Organizations may also 

access the geospatial products and 

services contracts and quality-control 

services managed by the USGS to 

acquire 3DEP data. Organizations may 

contribute existing elevation data 

that meet 3DEP specifications. More 

information about using USGS contracts or about other ways to contribute is available by request through 

http://nationalmap.gov/3DEP/3dep_

feedback.html

By William J. Carswell, Jr., and Vicki Lukas

Learn More about 3DEP

See the websites in the 3D Elevation Program sidebar. Please send questions to:

Director, National Geospatial Program

U.S. Geological Survey, MS 511

12201 Sunrise Valley Drive

Reston, VA 20192

Email: 3DEP@usgs.gov

Or visit the National Geospatial Program website at https://www2.usgs.gov/ngpo/

ISSN 2327-6916 (print)

ISSN 2327-6932 (online)

https://doi.org/10.3133/fs20173081