National Elevation Data Strategy: A Significant Coverage Increase

LiDAR derived data is the most popular method of data acquisition. Due to its wide range of coverage, it has opened doors to many new strategies and applications.

Due to its versatility and higher resolution standards, LiDAR derived data has found its place in multiple sectors in Canada. For that reason, National Elevation Data Strategy team is now producing more data and wider coverage than before. There are some interesting changes made to its four main elevation products.

Courtesy: NRCan

Since November 2023, over 507,000 km2 of lidar data has been merged into the High-Resolution Digital Elevation Model (HRDEM) and HRDEM Mosaic. Currently, these products span 1.54 million km2 and cover nearly 93% of the population.

Automatically Extracted Buildings and Lidar Point Clouds

NRCan created a raw digital product in vector format called “Automatically Extracted Buildings“.

Courtesy: NRCan

It comprises of a single topographical feature class that automatically extracts polygonal building footprints from airborne Lidar data, high-resolution optical photography, and other sources. More than 2.8 million new lidar-derived building data has been added to this dataset since November 2023 covering the provinces of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Additionally, it includes sixteen of Canada’s 100 largest cities.

The LiDAR Point Clouds is a product that contains point clouds from various airborne LiDAR acquisition projects conducted in Canada. Since November 2023, around 92,400 km2 of additional lidar point cloud data have been provided, totaling 222,400 km. British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island are some new additional regions.

New era of nationwide medium-resolution elevation (MRDEM)

Medium Resolution DEM (MRDEM)! This new product a part of CanElevation series, includes aligned Digital Surface Model (DSM) and Digital Terrain Model (DTM). Elevation data from the Copernicus Digital Elevation Model (GLO-30) and lidar-derived HRDEM at a 30 meters resolution, MRDEM incorporates latest natural and human-caused changes in Canada’s landscape.

MRDEM Coverage extent

The dataset was horizontally reprojected to NAD83(CSRS) Canada Atlas Lambert and vertically changed to CGVD2013, Canada’s height reference standard. The CanElevation Series currently offers the best medium resolution elevation model for Canada, with full coverage across the country. For a wider-scale elevation study, MRDEM will be a boon.