Important Note: This item is in mature support as of June 2021 and is no longer updated.

This map presents land cover and detailed topographic maps for the United States. It uses the USA Topographic Map service. The map includes the National Park Service (NPS) Natural Earth physical map at 1.24km per pixel for the world at small scales, i-cubed eTOPO 1:250,000-scale maps for the contiguous United States at medium scales, and National Geographic TOPO! 1:100,000 and 1:24,000-scale maps (1:250,000 and 1:63,000 in Alaska) for the United States at large scales. The TOPO! maps are seamless, scanned images of United States Geological Survey (USGS) paper topographic maps.

The maps provide a very useful basemap for a variety of applications, particularly in rural areas where the topographic maps provide unique detail and features from other basemaps.

To add this map service into a desktop application directly, go to the entry for the USA Topo Maps map service.

Tip: Here are some famous locations as they appear in this web map, accessed by including their location in the URL that launches the map:

Grand Canyon, Arizona

Golden Gate, California

The Statue of Liberty, New York

Washington DC

Canyon De Chelly, Arizona

Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming

Area 51, Nevada

The Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) is a raster image of a scanned USGS topographic map including the collar information, georeferenced to the UTM grid. This version of the Digital Raster Graphic (DRG) has been clipped to remove the collar (white border of the map) and has been reprojected to geographic coordinates.

The U.S. Interagency Elevation Inventory (USIEI) displays high-accuracy topographic and bathymetric data for the United States and its territories. The project is a collaborative effort between the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the U.S. Geological Survey, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Department of Agriculture - Natural Resources Conservation Service and U...

A submerged topography elevation map (also known as a Digital Elevation Model, or DEM) of a portion of the U.S. Virgin Islands was produced from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and National Park Service (NPS). Elevation measurements were collected over the area using the NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL), a pulsed-laser ranging system mounted onboard an aircraft to measure ground elevation, vegetation canopy, and coastal topography. The system uses high frequency laser beams directed at the Earth's surface through an opening in the bottom of the aircraft's fuselage. The laser system records the time difference between emission of the laser beam and the reception of the reflected laser signal in the aircraft. The plane travels over the target area at approximately 50 meters per second at an elevation of approximately 30 ...

A first surface elevation map (also known as a Digital Elevation Model, or DEM) of a portion of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands was produced from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements cooperatively by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and National Park Service (NPS). Elevation measurements were collected over the area using the NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL), a pulsed-laser ranging system mounted onboard an aircraft to measure ground elevation, vegetation canopy, and coastal topography. The system uses high-frequency laser beams directed at the Earth's surface through an opening in the bottom of the aircraft's fuselage. The laser system records the time difference between emission of the laser beam and the reception of the reflected laser signal in the aircraft. The plane travels over the target area at approximately 50 meters per second at an elevation of approximately 300 meters. The EAARL, developed by NASA at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, measures ground elevation with a vertical resolution of 15 centimeters. A sampling rate of 3 kilohertz or higher results in an extremely dense spatial elevation dataset. Over 100 kilometers of coastline can be surveyed easily within a 3- to 4-hour mission. When subsequent elevation maps for an area are analyzed, they provide a useful tool to make management decisions regarding land development. For more information on Lidar science and the Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL) system and surveys, see http://ngom.usgs.gov/dsp/overview/index.php and http://ngom.usgs.gov/dsp/tech/eaarl/index.php .

The Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data set is a survey of Alameda County in Northern California. The entire survey covers approximately 868.382 square miles. The Nominal Point Density of this dataset is approximately 1.66 meters for unobscured areas. The LiDAR discrete-return point cloud data were originally available in the American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) L...

Topographic diversity (D) is a surrogate variable that represents the variety of temperature and moisture conditions available to species as local habitats. It expresses the logic that a higher variety of topo-climate niches should support higher diversity (especially plant) and support species persistence given climatic change. To calculate D, the multi-scale Topographic Position Index (mTPI), being a dominant control of soil moisture (T), was used for measuring hillslope position. The mTPI was combined with the square-root transform for mTPI>0 (T') and with the standard deviation of the Continuous Heat-Insolation Load Index (CHILI), calculated at multiple scales (C') as: D = 1 - ((1-T') * (1-C'). It is based on the USGS's 10m NED DEM (available in EE as USGS/NED). The Conservation Science Partners (CSP) Ecologically Relevant Geomorphology (ERGo) Datasets, Landforms and Physiography contain detailed, multi-scale data on landforms and physiographic (aka land facet) patterns. Although there are many potential uses of these data, the original purpose for these data was to develop an ecologically relevant classification and map of landforms and physiographic classes that are suitable for climate adaptation planning. Because there is large uncertainty associated with future climate conditions and even more uncertainty around ecological responses, providing information about what is unlikely to change offers a strong foundation for managers to build robust climate adaptation plans. The quantification of these features of the landscape is sensitive to the resolution, so we provide the highest resolution possible given the extent and characteristics of a given index.

description: This map presents land cover imagery for the world and detailed topographic maps for the United States. The map includes the National Park Service (NPS) Natural Earth physical map at 1.24km per pixel for the world at small scales, i-cubed eTOPO 1:250,000-scale maps for the contiguous United States at medium scales, and National Geographic TOPO! 1:100,000 and 1:24,000-scale maps (1:250,000 and 1:63,000 in Alaska) for the United States at large scales. The TOPO! maps are seamless, scanned images of United States Geological Survey (USGS) paper topographic maps. For more information on this map, including our terms of use, visit us online at http://goto.arcgisonline.com/maps/USA_Topo_Maps; abstract: topography, topographic, land cover, physical, TOPO!imageryBaseMapsEarthCover (Imagery, basemaps, and land cover)USA Topo Maps

The ArcGIS Online US Geological Survey (USGS) topographic map collection now contains over 177,000 historical quadrangle maps dating from 1882 to 2006. The USGS Historical Topographic Map Explorer app brings these maps to life through an interface that guides users through the steps for exploring the map collection:Find a location of interest.View the maps.Compare the maps.Download and share the maps or open them in ArcGIS Desktop (ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap) where places will appear in their correct geographic location. Save the maps in an ArcGIS Online web map.

Finding the maps of interest is simple. Users can see a footprint of the map in the map view before they decide to add it to the display, and thumbnails of the maps are shown in pop-ups on the timeline. The timeline also helps users find maps because they can zoom and pan, and maps at select scales can be turned on or off by using the legend boxes to the left of the timeline. Once maps have been added to the display, users can reorder them by dragging them. Users can also download maps as zipped GeoTIFF images. Users can also share the current state of the app through a hyperlink or social media. This ArcWatch article guides you through each of these steps: https://www.esri.com/esri-news/arcwatch/1014/envisioning-the-past.Once signed in, users can create a web map with the current map view and any maps they have selected. The web map will open in ArcGIS Online. The title of the web map will be the same as the top map on the side panel of the app. All historical maps that were selected in the app will appear in the Contents section of the web map with the earliest at the top and the latest at the bottom. Turning the historical maps on and off or setting the transparency on the layers allows users to compare the historical maps over time. Also, the web map can be opened in ArcGIS Desktop (ArcGIS Pro or ArcMap) and used for exploration or data capture.Users can find out more about the USGS topograhic map collection and the app by clicking on the information button at the upper right. This opens a pop-up with information about the maps and app. The pop-up includes a useful link to a USGS web page that provides access to documents with keys explaining the symbols on historic and current USGS topographic maps. The pop-up also has a link to send Esri questions or comments about the map collection or the app.We have shared the updated app on GitHub, so users can download it and configure it to work with their own map collections.

This map is designed to be used as a basemap by GIS professionals and as a reference map by anyone. The map includes administrative boundaries, cities, water features, physiographic features, parks, landmarks, highways, roads, railways, and airports overlaid on land cover and shaded relief imagery for added context. The map provides coverage for the world down to a scale of ~1:72k. Coverage is provided down to ~1:4k for the following areas: Australia and New Zealand; India; Europe; Canada; Mexico; the continental United States and Hawaii; South America and Central America; Africa; and most of the Middle East. Coverage down to ~1:1k and ~1:2k is available in select urban areas. This basemap was compiled from a variety of best available sources from several data providers, including the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. National Park Service (NPS), Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCAN), GeoBase, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Garmin, HERE, Esri, OpenStreetMap contributors, and the GIS User Community. For more information on this map, including the terms of use, visit us online.

Topography provides information about the structural controls of the Great Basin and therefore information that may be used to identify favorable structural settings for geothermal systems. Specifically, local relative topography gives information about locations of faults and fault intersections relative to mountains, valleys, or at the transitions between. As part of U.S. Geological Survey efforts to engineer features that are useful for predicting geothermal resources, we construct a detrended elevation map that emphasizes local relative topography and highlights features that geologists use for identifying geothermal systems (i.e., providing machine learning algorithms with features that may improve predictive skill by emphasizing the information used by geologists). Herein, we provide the trend and local relative elevation maps documented in DeAngelo and others (2023), describing the process of removal of the regional trend and the resulting detrended elevation maps that emphasize basin-and-range scale structural features. Regional elevation trends were estimated using a local linear regression and subtracted from a 30-m digital elevation model (DEM) of topography to create the detrended elevation (i.e., local relative topography) map; therefore one could add the detrended surface to the corresponding trend surface to construct the original DEM. In an effort to optimize the detrended surface, alternate versions were produced with different rates of smoothness resulting in three detrended elevation maps. The resulting detrended elevation maps emphasize geologic structure and relative displacement, and these products may be useful for other geologic research including mineral exploration, hydrologic research, and defining geologic provinces. References DeAngelo, J., Burns, E.R., Lindsey, C.R., and Mordensky, S.P., (2023), Detrending Great Basin elevation to identify structural patterns for identifying geothermal favorability, Geothermal Rising Conference Transactions, 47, Reno, Nevada, October 1-5, 2023.

Download US Geological Survey topographic maps in multiple formats, scales, and years, including 1:24,000-scale topo maps, using the USGS topoView web application.Learn how to use topoView: https://youtu.be/UCTIvQqVr4E

This dataset is a categorical mapping of estimated mean building heights, by Census block group, in shapefile format for the conterminous United States. The data were derived from the NASA Shuttle Radar Topography Mission, which collected “first return” (top of canopy and buildings) radar data at 30-m resolution in February, 2000 aboard the Space Shuttle Endeavor. These data were processed here to estimate building heights nationally, and then aggregated to block group boundaries. The block groups were then categorized into six classes, ranging from “Low” to “Very High”, based on the mean and standard deviation breakpoints of the data. The data were evaluated in several ways, to include comparing them to a reference dataset of 85,000 buildings for the city of San Francisco for accuracy assessment and to provide contextual definitions for the categories.

USGS Historical Quadrangle in GeoPDF. The USGS Historical Quadrangle Scanning Project (HQSP) is scanning all scales and all editions of topographic maps published by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since the inception of the topographic mapping program in 1884.

ASCII xyz point cloud data were produced from remotely-sensed, geographically-referenced elevation measurements in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) and National Air and Space Administration (NASA). Elevation measurements were collected over the area using the NASA Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL), a pulsed laser ranging system mounted onboard an aircraft to measure ground elevation, vegetation canopy, and coastal topography. The system uses high-frequency laser beams directed at the earth's surface through an opening in the bottom of the aircraft's fuselage. The laser system records the time difference between emission of the laser beam and the reception of the reflected laser signal in the aircraft. The plane travels over the target area at approximately 50 meters per second at an elevation of approximately 300 meters. The EAARL, developed by NASA at Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia, measures ground elevation with a vertical resolution of ...

TASK NAME: Louisiana Region 2 LiDAR ARRA Task Order LiDAR Data Acquisition and Processing Production Task- Orleans, Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Tammany Parishes, and Hancock County (MS) USGS Contract No: G10PC00057 Task Order No: G10PD02781 Woolpert ORDER NUMBER: 70930 CONTRACTOR: Woolpert, Inc. LiDAR data is a remotely sensed high resolution elevation data collected by an airborne platform....

This dataset was created to represent the land surface elevation at 1:24,000 scale for Florida. The elevation contour lines representing the land surface elevation were digitized from United States Geological survey 1:24,000 (7.5 minute) quadrangles and were compiled by South Florida, South West Florida, St. Johns River and Suwannee River Water Management Districts and FDEP. QA and corrections to the data were supplied by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's Florida Geological Survey and the Division of Water Resource Management. This data, representing over 1,000 USGS topographic maps, spans a variety of contour intervals including 1 and 2 meter and 5 and 10 foot. The elevation values have been normalized to feet in the final data layer. Attributes for closed topographic depressions were also captured where closed (hautchered) features were identified and the lowest elevation determined using the closest contour line minus one-half the contour interval. This data was derived from the USGS 1:24,000 topographic map series. The data is more than 20 years old and is likely out-of-date in areas of high human activity.

A submerged topography Digital Elevation Model (DEM) mosaic for a portion of the submerged environs of Saint Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, was produced from remotely sensed, geographically referenced elevation measurements collected on March 11, 19, and 21, 2014 by the U.S. Geological Survey, in collaboration with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Coral Reef Conservation Program. Elevation measurements were collected over the area using the second-generation Experimental Advanced Airborne Research Lidar (EAARL-B), a pulsed laser ranging system mounted onboard an aircraft to measure ground elevation, vegetation canopy, and coastal topography. The system uses high-frequency laser beams directed at the Earth's surface through an opening in the bottom of the aircraft's fuselage. The laser system records the time difference between emission of the laser beam and the reception of the reflected laser signal in the aircraft. The plane travels over the target area at approximately 55 meters per second at an elevation of approximately 300 meters, resulting in a laser swath of approximately 240 meters with an average point spacing of 0.5?1.6 meters. The nominal vertical elevation accuracy expressed as the root mean square error (RMSE) is 13.5 centimeters. A peak sampling rate of 15?30 kilohertz results in an extremely dense spatial elevation dataset. More than 100 kilometers of coastline can be surveyed easily within a 3- to 4-hour mission. When resultant elevation maps for an area are analyzed, they provide a useful tool to make management decisions regarding land development.

USGS Contract Number: 01CRCN0014

In Spring, 2006 Sanborn was contracted by the USGS to survey aprocimately 1,735 square miles of western Whatcom and Skagit Counties in Washington state. All data was collected during ideal conditions (rivers at or below mean level, leaf off, etc.).

For this collect two sensors were used: The Leica ALS-50 (High Relief Collection) and Optech 2050 (High and Low R...

This free dataset, compiled by the U.S. Navy Fleet Numerical Oceanography Center (with data help from NCAR), contains global elevation data at 10-minute resolution. Each 10-minute by 10-minute area contains modal, maximum and minimum elevations, orientation of ridges, terrain characteristics, and urban development. These data are current as of December 1984.