1885 - 2021 USGS CoNED Topobathy DEM (Compiled 2022): Northern Gulf of Mexico

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Information on the NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM)

The Data Access Viewer (DAV) allows a user to search for and download elevation, imagery, and land cover data for the coastal U.S. and its territories. The data, hosted by the NOAA Office for Coastal Management, can be customized and requested for free download through a checkout interface. An email provides a link to the customized data, while the original data set is available through a link within the viewer.

Link to the USGS CoNED Applications Project.

Link to the spatial metadata data dictionary and the spatially referenced metadata in ESRI file geodatabase (gdb) and Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) GeoPackage (gpkg) formats.

Link to the data set footprint.

Cat Island MS to Gulf Shores, AL.

Covers large portion of Southern, AL, 2017 QL2 Lidar. Contains Baldwin County with NGOM 2 boundary.

Cat Island MS to Gulf Shores, AL.

Atchafalaya River bank to bank survey

Point Breeze, Mississippi River Chanel

1/3 Arc-Second Elevation Southern US

1/3 Arc-Second Elevation Southern US

Magnolia, MS

Amite River Basin Mississippi and Louisiana Defined by HUC8

BA-0143 Elmer's Island east to Caminada Pass, LA.

BA-045 Belle Pass east mouth of Bayou Lafourche east to Elmer's Island, LA

Mississippi River immediately adjacent to BA-0153 Mid-Barataria diversion channel

West Grand Terre Island. LA

Grand Isle, LA

Queen Bess Island Southeastern Barataria Bay, LA

West Isle Grand Beach, LA

Eastern Barataria Barrier Islands

Biloxi, MS, Mississippi Sound

Chandeleur Islands

Ship and Horn Islands, MS/AL

Varies

Varies

Baptiste Collette Pass Mississippi River

Barataria Waterway

St Louis Bay, Bryan Bayou, Mississippi Sound

Bayou Black

Bayou Boeuf

Bayous Bonfuca, Lacombe, and Segnette

Bayou Boeuf to GIWW intersection with Bayou Chene and Bayou Black.

Bayou la Batre, Coden, AL

Bayou Lafourche

Bayou Rigaud

Bayou Schaffer

Bayou Boeuf

Back Bay of Biloxi

Bon Secour River

Calcasieu River

East Fowl River

Fresh water Bayou

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway, New Orleans

Port Arthur to Port Bolivar

Gulfport Sound Channels

Houma Navigation Channel

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Houma to New Orleans, LA

Lake Maurepas, Lake Pontchartrain

Atchafalaya River - lower bay channel

Mermentau River - lower river

Mississippi Passes

Mobile upper bay channel

Tiger Pass, Venice

Pascagoula River Channel.

Fresh water Bayou

Sabine Neches Waterway

IHNC Storm Surge Barrier MRGO to Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (GIWW) immediately south-east of MRGO with the GIWW, LA.

Seabrook floodgate

Vermilion River, Vermilion Bay

Intercoastal Waterway south of New Orleans

Varies

Grand Bay

Consists of MBB collected for 4 Atchafalaya River channel survey areas: 1) Melville, Elba, Morgan City, and Wax Lake, LA acquired by Coastal Planning and Engineering, Inc.

Swamp Phase 1 area within Barataria Basin from Lake Des Allemands to Barataria Bay, LA

Swamp Phase 2 area East of the Mississippi River including Lake Borgne, Lake Pontchartrain, Chandeleur Sound, and the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet (MRGO).

Swamp Phase 3 area from East to Central Terrebonne Basin, LA

Swamp Phase 4 area from West Terrebonne Basin to the Sabine Basin, LA

Lafourche Parish, LA levee system

ARRA Region 2 encompasses coastal Louisiana east of the Mississippi River, NE to Lake Borgne's excluding the northern shoreline to the MS state line. The active Mississippi River Delta or bird's foot is included in Region 2.

ARRA Region 2 encompasses coastal Louisiana east of the Mississippi River, NE to Lake Borgne's excluding the northern shoreline to the MS state line. The active Mississippi River Delta or bird's foot is included in Region 2.

Atchafalaya River Basin within guide levees from Old River to the Gulf of Mexico, (LA).

Southern Louisiana

Central Western Louisiana from Southern Rapides Parish south to 2017 chenier Plain QL2 lidar boundary and from 4 miles west of Lafayette, LA to eastern Lake Charles, LA.

BICM Chenier Plain Region from Marsh Island, LA West to the TX border.

BICM Western Early Lafourche Delta Region from Racoon Point West to Point Au Fer Island, LA.

Chenier Plain (LA)

South Barataria basin (LA) between Bayou Lafourche on West and the Mississippi River on East and from Lake Salvador on North and then South to the Gulf of Mexico (LA).

South Terrebonne basin 9LA) from Gulf of Mexico on South then North to Morgan City and then ENE to the west bank of Bayou Lafourche, near Labadieville, and then SE to Galliano, LA. Also includes Gulf barrier Islands from the Chandeleur Islands, LA East to Dauphin Island, AL.

Statewide

Upper Delta Plain (LA) from the Peral River on East to the Atchafalaya River East Guide Levee on West. From I-12 North to mid-Barataria Basin North-east to the Pearl River.

Bohemia Spillway, Plaquemines Parish, LA

Mississippi River, south and west of New Orleans

Six Mississippi Coastal Counties and 3DEP Extension (Pike County in NGOM 2 AOI)

Mississippi River Channel

Mobile Bay, AL

West of Camp Shelby

Filtered bathymetry in the northern Gulf of Mexico

New Orleans, LA

700 square mile area to the east of Mobile Bay

Northern Gulf of Mexico

Northern Gulf of Mexico

Northern Gulf of Mexico

Pearl River, LA/MS border

Pensacola, FL

Dauphin Island, Fly Creek, Perdido Pass

Goose Point-Proctor Point, LA

Immediately south of the Mississippi River Gulf Coast Outlet Canal's intersection with Bayou La Loutre

Southwest Lake Catherine's Island, LA

Dauphin Island, AL

Southern Louisiana

North Lake Merchant Land Bridge, LA fill borrow area

Gulf Intracoastal Waterway from Houma to Morgan City, LA

Terrebonne Bay around Timbalier and Derrieres Islands

extents cover the cities of Beaumont, Port Arthur, and Nederland in southeast Texas

Orange, Matagorda, Harris Counties

Mississippi River bank to bank survey from Old River Control Structure to SW Pass, LA.

Mobile County, AL, 2014 QL2 Lidar

Complete or partial coverage of twenty-six Texas counties in southeastern Texas containing the Neches River Drainage Basin (The southeastern portion of the project Area is in NGOM 2 AOI)

Complete coverage of the Texas Eastern data for block 3, just west of the Sabine River within TX and the NGOM 2 boundary

Tishomingo, Mississippi 2016 QL2 LiDAR Project southern AOI only (partial NGOM 2 coverage).

Tupelo, Mississippi 2016 QL2 LiDAR Project Report (partial NGOM 2 coverage).

Southwest Central MS from Vicksburg to Louisiana state line. 2016 QL2 LiDAR Project Report (partial NGOM 2 coverage).

The principal methodology for developing the integrated topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) can be organized into three main components. The "topography component" consists of the land-based elevation data, which is primarily comprised from high-density lidar data. The topographic source data will include lidar data from different sensors (Topographic, Bathymetric) with distinct spectral wavelengths (NIR-1064nm, Green-532nm). The "bathymetry component" consists of hydrographic sounding (acoustic) data collected using watercraft rather than bathymetry acquired from green laser lidar within an airborne platform. The most common forms of bathymetric acquisitions include are multi-beam, single-beam, and swath. The final component, "integration", encompasses the assimilation of the topographic and bathymetric data along the near-shore based on a predefined set of priorities. The land/water interface is the most critical area, and green laser systems, such as the Experimental Advanced Airborne Research lidar (EAARL-B) and the Coastal Zone Mapping and Imaging Lidar (CZMIL) that cross the near-shore interface are valuable in developing a seamless transition. The TBDEM created from the topography and bathymetry components is a raster with associated spatial masks and metadata that can be passed to the integration component for final model incorporation.

Topo/Bathy Creation Steps: Topography Processing Component: a) Quality control check the vertical and horizontal datum and projection information of the input lidar source to ensure the data is referenced to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88), the North American Datum of 1983 (NAD83), and the Universal Transverse Mercator (UTM) projection. If the source data is not NAVD88, transform the input lidar data to NAVD88 reference frame using current National Geodetic Survey (NGS) geoid models and NOAA’s Vertical Datums Transformation (VDatum) software. Likewise, if required, convert the input source data to NAD83 and reproject to UTM. b) Check the classification of the topographic lidar data to verify the data are classified with the appropriate classes. If the data have not been classified, then classify the raw point cloud data to non-ground (class 1) ground (class 2), and water (class 9) classes using LP360-Classify. c) Derive associated breaklines from the classified lidar to capture internal water bodies, such as lakes and ponds and inland waterways. Inland waterways and water bodies were hydro-flattened where no bathymetry is present. Hydro-flattening is the process of creating a lidar-derived DEM in which water surfaces appear and behave as they would in traditional topographic DEMs created from photogrammetric digital terrain models (DTMs). d) Extract the ground returns from the classified lidar data and randomly spatial subset the points into two point sets based on the criteria of 95 percent of the points for the "Actual Selected" set and the remaining 5 percent for the "Test Control" set. The "Actual Selected" points will be gridded in the terrain model along with associated breaklines and masks to generate the topographic surface, while the "Test Control" points will be used to compute the interpolation accuracy, Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) from the derived surface. e) Generate the minimum convex hull boundary from the classified ground lidar points that creates a mask that extracts the perimeter of the exterior lidar points. The mask is then applied in the terrain to remove extraneous terrain artifacts outside of the extent of the ground lidar points. f) Using a terrain model based on triangulated irregular networks (TINs), grid the "Actual Selected" ground points using breaklines and the minimum convex hull boundary mask at a 1-meter spatial resolution using a natural neighbor interpolation algorithm. g) Compute the interpolation accuracy by comparing elevation values in the "Test Control" points to values extracted from the derived gridded su

Bathymetry Processing Component: a) Quality control check the vertical and horizontal datum and projection information of the input bathymetric source to ensure the data is referenced to NAVD88 and NAD83, UTM. If the source data is not NAVD88, transform the input bathymetric data to NAVD88 reference frame using VDatum. Likewise, if required, convert the input source data to NAD83 and reproject to UTM. b) Prioritize and spatially sort the bathymetry based on date of acquisition, spatial distribution, accuracy, and point density to eliminate any outdated or erroneous points and to minimize interpolation artifacts. c) Randomly spatial subset the bathymetric points into two point sets based on the criteria of 95 percent of the points for the "Actual Selected" set and the remaining 5 percent for the "Test Control" set. The "Actual Selected" points will be gridded in the empirical Bayesian kriging model along with associated masks to generate the bathymetric surface, while the "Test Control" points will be used to compute the interpolation accuracy (RMSE) from the derived surface. d) Spatially interpolate bathymetric single-beam, multi-beam, and hydrographic survey source data using an empirical Bayesian kriging gridding algorithm. This approach uses a geostatistical interpolation method that accounts for the error in estimating the underlying semivariogram (data structure - variance) through repeated simulations. e) Cross validation - Compare the predicted value in the geostatistical model to the actual observed value to assess the accuracy and effectiveness of model parameters by removing each data location one at a time and predicting the associated data value. The results will be reported in terms of RMSE. f) Compute the interpolation accuracy by comparing elevation values in the "Test Control" points to values extracted from the derived gridded surface; report the results in terms of RMSE.

Integration Component: a.) Analyze the input data priority based on project characteristics, including acquisition dates, cell size, retention of features, water surface treatment, visual inspection, and presence of artifacts. b.) Prioritize and spatially sort the input topographic, topobathymetric, and bathymetric raster layers based on date of survey acquisition date, accuracy, spatial distribution, and point density to sequence the raster data in the integrated elevation model. c.) Develop an ArcGIS geodatabase (Mosaic Dataset) and spatial seamlines for each individual topographic, topobathymetric, and bathymetric raster layer included in the integrated elevation model. d.) Create an overview project masking polygon (based on final study AOI) e.) Using Grid Index Features, create a 6000x6000 fishnet feature class for tile-based integration processing f.) Create simple raster (vector) boundaries (custom simple_raster_bnd_batch tool) from the final set of input rasters based on the input priority. The rasters should be prioritized with the highest priority ranking on top and so forth. g.) Generate spatially referenced metadata for each input raster (custom make spatial metadata tool) from the simple raster boundary files, based on the input priority. The boundaries should be prioritized with the lowest priority (input raster layer) ranking on top and so forth. The spatially referenced metadata consists of the group of geospatial polygons that represent the spatial footprint of each data source used in the generation of the TBDEM. Each polygon is populated with raster metadata attributes that describe the source data, such as, resolution, acquisition date, source name, source organization, source contact, source project, source URL, and data type (topographic lidar, topobathymetric lidar, multibeam bathymetry, single-beam bathymetry, etc.). h.) Generalize seamline edges to smooth transition boundaries between neighboring raster layers and split complex raster datasets with isolated regions into individual unique raster groups. i.) Using the spatial metadata and tile fishnet, spatially mosaic (custom make micro mosaic dataset tool) the input raster data sources based on priority to create a seamless topobathymetric composite at a cell size of 1-meter using a linear spatial blending (ten pixel overlapping area) technique between input source layers. j.) Perform a visual quality assurance (Q/A) assessment on the output TBDEM composite to review the integrated mosaic for artifacts and anomalies.

The NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM) received one tif file for the topobathymetric data for northern Gulf of Mexico (TX, LA, MS, AL) from the USGS Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) Applications Project for inclusion in the NOAA Digital Coast Data Access Viewer. The data were in UTM Zone 15 NAD83(2011), meters coordinates and in NAVD88 (Geoid12B) elevations in meters. The data were at a 1m grid spacing. The data were retiled to 8512, cloud optimized GeoTiffs using gdal_retile.py and the horizontal (6344) and vertical (5703) EPSG codes were assigned.