USGS DEM Recordsdata: The best way to Load, Merge, and Crop with Python | by Lee Vaughan | Dec, 2024

QUICK SUCCESS DATA SCIENCE

A fast information to prepping digital elevation information

A colorful USGS DEM map of the Bayou Pierre river in Claiborne County, Mississippi.
United States Geological Survey Digital Elevation Mannequin (by the writer)

A Digital Elevation Mannequin (DEM) is a 3D digital illustration of the earth’s floor. It data the top above sea degree for numerous factors, which can be measured utilizing conventional surveying strategies, LIDAR, satellite tv for pc imagery, aerial images, or GPS measurements. DEMs are often saved in raster format, the place every pixel has an elevation worth.

DEMs are important instruments in fields that use the bodily panorama for planning and decision-making. Instance makes use of embody topographic mapping, hydrological modeling, city planning, environmental research, and creating life like terrain fashions for digital actuality, gaming, and simulations.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) supplies free DEMs downloadable from the Nationwide Map Downloader. These are seamless raster information referred to as DEM TIFFs or GeoTIFFs. Whereas just like commonplace photographic TIFFs, these information comprise embedded geospatial metadata.

On this Fast Success Information Science undertaking, we’ll put together a DEM TIFF for a particular geographical space. This gained’t be as straightforward as downloading a file from a web site. The present USGS information will hardly ever coincide with the realm of…