What Lidar Elevation Data Is Worth to Oregon

Oregon's landscape is unusually varied — wet coastal and dry interior mountain ranges split by the volcanic Cascades, a long coastline, interior valleys and basins, high desert and semi-arid steppe. That variety, plus a growing population, makes high-quality elevation data valuable for infrastructure, forestry and wildfire management, agriculture, conservation and business. Many of those uses depend on lidar (light detection and ranging), which gives a detailed three-dimensional model of the ground and everything on it.

The 3D Elevation Program

The U.S. Geological Survey's 3D Elevation Program (3DEP), run with federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local partners, aims to complete the first national baseline of consistent, high-resolution elevation data — lidar everywhere, and radar (IfSAR) in Alaska. Baseline products are quality level 2 or better: bare-earth elevation models at 1-meter or finer resolution plus the full lidar point clouds, meeting the Lidar Base Specification version 1.2 or newer. Data go into The National Map and are free, with no use restrictions.

Status of 3DEP baseline lidar data in Oregon as of May 2023: available or in progress, contribution pending, or no baseline data. USGS.

What it's worth

The National Enhanced Elevation Assessment (2012) conservatively estimated that lidar would bring Oregon at least $45.7 million a year in new benefits.

Against an estimated $5.96 million to complete quality level 2 coverage (QL0 and QL1 cost extra), the payback is 0.13 year.

Lidar at work in Oregon

• Highways. The Oregon Department of Transportation has used lidar since 2005, finding that it saves project time and keeps staff safer in rugged or remote terrain. After the Hooskanaden landslide cut U.S. Route 101 in southwestern Oregon in 2019, it used lidar for hydraulic design, for planning how to drain the slide zone and for the earthwork in redesigning the highway.
• Floods. The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries uses lidar to make precise, credible flood maps, helping the state judge flood risk quickly and improve dam and levee safety, reducing risk to life and property.
• Wildfire. After record-setting fires, the value of lidar in fire management may grow sharply. Firefighting in Oregon now tops $500 million in bad seasons — as of November 2019, 11 times the cost of preventing fires. Elevation data support fire behavior modeling, response, fuel assessment and post-fire checks on slope stability.
• Geology. Mapping, including mineral deposits and hazards, is faster and more accurate with lidar. Ian Madin of the state geology department has described it as essential to Oregon's geologic mapping, used at every step from planning fieldwork to making base maps, and Oregon's geospatial information officer, Cy Smith, has said statewide lidar would give Oregon one of the most powerful datasets available — from warning planners of landslide and tsunami risk to mapping infrastructure in fine detail.

Nationwide benefits and how to join

3DEP gains economies of scale by collecting over large areas, offers predictable federal investment, provides coverage that crosses project and jurisdiction boundaries, and simplifies contracting and quality assurance. Nationally, benefits are conservatively estimated at $690 million a year, with potential for $13 billion a year more. Federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local governments and private partners can join — contributing funds to USGS-managed projects, receiving cooperative funds to run their own, or contributing existing data that meets 3DEP standards — through an annual Broad Agency Announcement.

Sources

Rewritten from the U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2023–3029, "The 3D Elevation Program—Supporting Oregon's economy" (public domain), in hubnx's own words; remarks by two Oregon state officials are paraphrased.

• Words on this page from people and organisations outside the federal government are paraphrased; rewritten in hubnx's own words.