Continuously Updated Digital Elevation Models (CUDEMs) to Support Coastal Inundation Modeling

Abstract

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) generates digital elevation models (DEMs) that range from the local to global scale. Collectively, these DEMs are essential to determining the timing and extent of coastal inundation and improving community preparedness, event forecasting, and warning systems. We initiated a comprehensive framework at NCEI, the Continuously Updated DEM (CUDEM) Program, with seamless bare-earth, topographic-bathymetric and bathymetric DEMs for the entire United States (U.S.) Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico Coasts, Hawaii, American Territories, and portions of the U.S. Pacific Coast. The CUDEMs are currently the highest-resolution, seamless depiction of the entire U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts in the public domain; coastal topographic-bathymetric DEMs have a spatial resolution of 1/9th arc-second (~3 m) and offshore bathymetric DEMs coarsen to 1/3rd arc-second (~10 m). We independently validate the land portions of the CUDEMs with NASA’s Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument on board the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2) observatory and calculate a corresponding vertical mean bias error of 0.12 m ± 0.75 m at one standard deviation, with an overall RMSE of 0.76 m. We generate the CUDEMs through a standardized process using free and open-source software (FOSS) and provide open-access to our code repository. The CUDEM framework consists of systematic tiled geographic extents, spatial resolutions, and horizontal and vertical datums to facilitate rapid updates of targeted areas with new data collections, especially post-storm and tsunami events. The CUDEM framework also enables the rapid incorporation of high-resolution data collections ingested into local-scale DEMs into NOAA NCEI’s suite of regional and global DEMs. Future research efforts will focus on the generation of additional data products, such as spatially explicit vertical error estimations and morphologic change calculations, to enhance the utility and scientific benefits of the CUDEM Program.

The Role of Advection in Storm Surge for Hurricane Michael (2018)

“…A seamless digital DEM was developed using the most recent topographic and bathymetric data sources available before the 2018 hurricane season (Figures 2b and 2c) (Amante et al., 2023). Bathymetric data sources included the coastal data sets from NOAA and depth soundings and river cross sections from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.…”

Nearshore Bathymetry from ICESat-2 LiDAR and Sentinel-2 Imagery Datasets Using Physics-Informed CNN

“…The continuously updated digital elevation model (CUDEM) dataset is developed by NOAA's National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) and is generated from water depth data spanning from 2009 to the present [58]. It represents the highest-resolution, seamless depiction of the entire U.S. Atlantic and Gulf Coasts available in the public domain.…”

Simulation of Compound Flooding Using River‐Ocean Two‐Way Coupled E3SM Ensemble on Variable‐Resolution Meshes

“…In particular, the coarsely sampled global bathymetry have biases especially in shallower estuaries. While such data is commonly used in global ocean models, the simulation accuracy may be improved by using local bathymetry products at higher resolutions (Feng et al, 2019), such as 1-m USGS Coastal National Elevation Data (Danielson et al, 2018) or 1/9 arc-second Continuously Updated Digital Elevation Model (CUDEM) (Amante et al, 2023) in DBE, and 1/3 ∼ 1 arc-sec data Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems 10.1029/2023MS004054 from National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) along the Mid-Atlantic coast, and 3 arc-sec Coastal Relief Model in the deeper ocean (National Centers for Environmental Information, 2023). A possible uncertainty quantification approach is to conduct a model intercomparison study with higher-resolution regional coupled models.…”