Deliverable · Elevation Model (GeoTIFF)

A bare-earth DEM of your site, as a clean GeoTIFF

A ground-only elevation raster built from lidar ground returns (ASPRS Class 2) — vegetation and buildings removed — interpolated onto a regular grid and written as a georeferenced GeoTIFF in your coordinate system.

It behaves exactly like any other raster: drop it into QGIS or ArcGIS, run slope/aspect/watershed analysis, generate hillshades, or feed it to a hydrologic model.

Draw your site — free reportDownload a real exampleFrom $65 + $0.10/acre

Step 1

Draw your area

From a single parcel up to 50 km².

Step 2

Choose resolution and CRS

Grid cell size to suit your analysis; any EPSG with vertical datum control.

Step 3

Download the GeoTIFF

Nodata-aware, georeferenced, analysis-ready.

Built for

  • Drainage, watershed, and stormwater analysis
  • Slope and aspect mapping for solar and site selection
  • Hillshade basemaps and terrain visualization

Opens in: QGIS, ArcGIS, GDAL, Global Mapper.

Common questions

Is this a DEM, DTM, or DSM?

A bare-earth DEM (equivalently a DTM): only ground-classified returns are used, so vegetation and structures are excluded. We don’t currently produce first-return DSMs.

What resolution can I order?

You choose the grid cell size per order. The practical floor depends on the collection’s point density — the free availability report shows density so you can pick sensibly.

What’s the difference from the free USGS 1-meter DEM?

USGS publishes fixed 1 m national DEMs. ToposNow grids the actual point cloud for your site at your resolution, in your CRS and vertical datum, clipped to your boundary — no mosaicking, reprojection, or resampling on your end.

Other deliverables

Civil 3D Surface Model · Contour Map (PDF) · Raw LAS · ENU Points (E, N, U) · Coverage by state

Source: USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) lidar. Pricing shown as of 2026-07-10; the exact quote for your site is computed when you draw it. ToposNow deliverables are derived from published USGS lidar and are not a land survey.