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There is a new paper on DEM terminology and definitions (open access):

Guth, P.L., Niekerk, A.V., Grohmann, C.H., Muller, J.-P., Hawker, L., Florinsky, I.V., Gesch, D., Reuter, H.I., Herrera-Cruz, V., Riazanoff, S., Lópéz-Vázquez, C., Carabajal, C.C., Albinet, C., Strobl, P., 2021 - Digital Elevation Models: Terminology and Definitions. Remote Sensing, 13(18):3581. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs13183581

The paper is the first major contribution of the DEMIX project (DEM Intercomparison EXercise). The idea is to “consolidate terminology and definitions of key concepts to facilitate a common understanding among the growing community of DEM users, who do not necessarily share the same background”.

Scheme showing the surfaces represented by a DSM, a DTM, and a NVS (Guth et al., 2021)

Scientific Program

Topics

• Use of Digital Elevation, Terrain and Surface Models
• High resolution data collected with LiDAR, photogrammetry and satellite imagery
• Automated surface analysis with machine learning and new algorithms
• Measurements and simulations Earth surface changes
• 3D and 4D dynamics of Earth surface
• Morphometric techniques for climate change studies
• Modeling extreme processes and natural hazards on the Earth surface
• Marine Geomorphometry and bathymetry data
• Geomorphometry for urban areas and cultural heritage
• Planetary morphometry
• Professional and industrial applications of Geomorphometry

SEPTEMBER 13: USE OF DIGITAL ELEVATION, TERRAIN AND SURFACE MODELS

SEPTEMBER 14 DYNAMICS OF EARTH SURFACE: AUTOMATED SURFACE ANALYSIS AND MODELIZATION

SEPTEMBER 15 MODELING GEOMORPHOLOGICAL PROCESSES

The Digital Elevation Model Intercomparison eXperiment (DEMIX) working group is working to standardize DEM terminology, and evaluate the available global 1 arc second DEMs. They published a paper setting out their goals this summer.

• Strobl, P. A., Bielski, C., Guth, P. L., Grohmann, C. H., Muller, J.-P., López-Vázquez, C., Gesch, D. B., Amatulli, G., Riazanoff, S., and Carabajal, C.: 2021 THE DIGITAL ELEVATION MODEL INTERCOMPARISON EXPERIMENT DEMIX, A COMMUNITY-BASED APPROACH AT GLOBAL DEM BENCHMARKING, Int. Arch. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci., XLIII-B4-2021, 395–400, https://doi.org/10.5194/isprs-archives-XLIII-B4-2021-395-2021.

10 minute movie: DEMIX – The Digital Elevation Model Intercomparison EXperiment

NASA has recently released an interactive webmapping tool to explore effect of global warming on the sea level rise and potential risks / damages associated.

“The NASA Sea Level Projection Tool allows users to visualize and download the sea level projection data from the IPCC 6th Assessment Report (AR6). The goal of this tool is to provide easy and improved access and visualization to the consensus projections found in the report. The target audience is intended to be broad, allowing a general audience and scientists alike to interact with the information contained in the AR6.”

To learn more about method and Digital Terrain Model source used for modeling, please refer to:

• Fox-Kemper, B., H. T. Hewitt, C. Xiao, G. Aðalgeirsdóttir, S. S. Drijfhout, T. L. Edwards, N. R. Golledge, M. Hemer, R. E. Kopp, G. Krinner, A. Mix, D. Notz, S. Nowicki, I. S. Nurhati, L. Ruiz, J-B. Sallée, A. B. A. Slangen, Y. Yu, (2021). Ocean, Cryosphere and Sea Level Change. In: Climate Change 2021: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [MassonDelmotte, V., P. Zhai, A. Pirani, S. L. Connors, C. Péan, S. Berger, N. Caud, Y. Chen, L. Goldfarb, M. I. Gomis, M. Huang, K. Leitzell, E. Lonnoy, J. B. R. Matthews, T. K. Maycock, T. Waterfield, O. Yelekçi, R. Yu and B. Zhou (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press. In Press.

European Space Agency (ESA) has recently made available two global Digital Surface Models:

• GLO-30: the 30-m spatial resolution DSM,
• GLO-90: the 90-m spatial resolution DSM,

Both are available for download from cdsdata.copernicus.eu on a free basis for the general public under the terms and conditions of the Licence found here.

A copy of the GLO-30 and GLO-90 is now also available as Cloud Optimized GeoTIFFs from the Amazon AWS public data repository. The visualization shown above is from the sentinel-hub.com.

To learn more about the GLO-30 and it’s accuracy and production, refer to this article.