IASPEI - Picture Gallery

IUGG XXIV General Assembly July 2-13, 2007 Perugia, Italy
(S) - IASPEI - International Association of Seismology and Physics of the Earth's
Interior
JSS002 Poster presentation 1841
Development of high-resolution coastal digital elevation models for the
U.S.: seamlessly integrating bathymetric and topographic data to support
tsunami forecasting and modeling efforts
Mrs. Lisa Taylor
NOAA National Geophysical Data Center geophysicist
Barry W. Eakins
The National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration (NOAA), is building high-resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) for select coastal
regions. These combined bathymetrictopographic DEMs are used to support tsunami forecasting and
modeling efforts at the NOAA Center for Tsunami Research, Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory
(PMEL). The DEMs are part of the tsunami forecast system SIFT (Short-term Inundation Forecasting for
Tsunamis) currently being developed by PMEL for the NOAA Tsunami Warning Centers, and are used in
the MOST (Method of Splitting Tsunami) model developed by PMEL to simulate tsunami generation,
propagation, and inundation. We present our methodology for creating the high-resolution coastal
DEMs, typically at 1/3 arc-second (~10 meters) cell size, from bathymetric, topographic, and shoreline
data obtained from various sources, including federal, state, and local government agencies, academic
institutions, and private companies. These diverse digital datasets are collected using numerous
methodologies, in different terrestrial environments, and at various scales and resolutions. We discuss
problems encountered in building the DEMs and lessons learned, including: the importance of
establishing common vertical datums, accounting for morphologic change in the coastal zone, and
evaluating source data sets for reliability, consistency and accuracy.
Keywords: digital elevation models, tsunami forecasting, bathymetry