The Utah Geological Survey (UGS) as part of its mission to provide timely scientific information about Utah's geologic environment, resources, and hazards, acquires Lidar data with its partners in support of various geologic mapping and research projects. In 2011, the UGS and partners acquired approximately 4927 square kilometers of 1 meter Lidar data over the Cedar/Parowan Valley, Great Salt Lake shoreline/wetlands, Hurricane fault zone, Lowry Water, Ogden Valley, and North Ogden areas of Utah. The datasets include raw LAS, LAS, DEM, DSM, and metadata (includes XML metadata, project tile indexes, and area completion reports) files. The datasets acquired by the UGS and its partners are in the public domain and can be freely distributed with proper credit to the UGS and its partners.

These datasets were funded by the Utah Geological Survey, with the exception of the Great Salt Lake area, which was funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (grant no. CD-96811101-0) and the UGS, and the North Ogden area, which was funded by the Utah Division of Emergency Management, Floodplain Management Program.

During the Fall of 2016 AGRC and the Utah Geological Survey acquired ~205 square miles of 8 points per meter Quality Level 1 LiDAR of The Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) area around Milford, Utah in Beaver and Millard Counties in western Utah. The 0.5 meter resolution bare earth DEMs and first-return/highest-hit DSMs in .img format have a 10.0cm vertical RMSE accuracy and are available for download. The LAS classified point clouds are also available by request Rick Kelson from AGRC at RKelson@utah.gov or The National Map. This elevation data was collected between October 26 and November 3, 2016 and has a UTM NAD83 (2011) zone 12 north meter NAVD88(GEOID12) projection.

The State of Utah, including the Utah Automated Geographic Reference Center, Utah Geological Survey, and the Utah Division of Emergency Management, along with local and federal partners, including Salt Lake County and local cities, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, have funded and collected over 8380 km² (3236 mi²) of high-resolution (0.5 or 1 meter) Lidar data across the state since 2011, in support of a diverse set of flood mapping, geologic, transportation, infrastructure, solar energy, and vegetation projects. The datasets include point cloud, first return digital surface model (DSM), and bare-earth digital terrain/elevation model (DEM) data, along with appropriate metadata (XML, project tile indexes, and area completion reports).

This 0.5-meter 2013-2014 Wasatch Front dataset includes most of the Salt Lake and Utah Valleys (Utah), and the Wasatch (Utah and Idaho), and West Valley fault zones (Utah).

Other recently acquired State of Utah data include the 2011 Utah Geological Survey Lidar dataset covering Cedar and Parowan Valleys, the east shore/wetlands of Great Salt Lake, the Hurricane fault zone, the west half of Ogden Valley, North Ogden, and part of the Wasatch Plateau in Utah.

The 2015-2017 State of Utah Lidar Acquisition project includes portions of Bear Lake in Utah and Idaho, the Bear River, Cache Valley, Utah FORGE Project, Great Salt Lake, Minidoka National Wildlife Refuge (Idaho), Monroe Mountain, Utah Lake, Washington County, Washakie, Weber Valley, and the Whites Valley areas in Utah and the Colorado and Green River corridors in Utah. Project specifications are based on the U.S. Geological Survey National Geospatial Program Base Lidar Specification, Version 1.4.

During the Fall of 2016 AGRC and the Utah Geological Survey acquired ~205 square miles of 8 points per meter Quality Level 1 LiDAR of The Frontier Observatory for Research in Geothermal Energy (FORGE) area around Milford, Utah in Beaver and Millard Counties in western Utah. The .5 meter resolution bare earth DEMs and first-return/highest-hit DSMs in .img format have a 10.0cm vertical RMSE accuracy and are available for download. The LAS classified point clouds are also available by request Rick Kelson from AGRC at RKelson@utah.gov or The National Map. This elevation data was collected between October 26 and November 3, 2016 and has a UTM NAD83 (2011) zone 12 north meter NAVD88(GEOID12) projection.

This is a mosaic of 154 bare earth DEM panels (0.5 m resolution) acquired during Phase II of the Utah FORGE project. The DEM covers the western Mineral Mountains and adjoining basin including the Roosevelt Hot Springs area. The coordinates are in UTM Zone 12, NAD 83 and elevation units are in meters. The DEM is in GeoTiff format.

The SUCCESS_UTAH_PDL data set contains ground-based measurements made by the University of Utah Polarization Diversity LIDAR at the CART site during the April-May 1996 SUCCESS Mission.SUbsonic aircraft: Contrail & Clouds Effects Special Study (SUCCESS) is a NASA field program using scientifically instrumented aircraft and ground based measurements to investigate the effects of subsonic aircraft on contrails, cirrus clouds and atmospheric chemistry. The experiment is cosponsored by NASA's Subsonic Assessment Program and the Radiation Sciences Program which are part of the overall Aeronautics and Mission to Planet Earth Programs, respectively. SUCCESS has well over a hundred direct participants from several NASA Centers, other agencies, universities and private research companies.

NCALM Seed: Jim Evans, Utah State University. The survey area consisted of an irregular polygon, 92 square kilometers, located on Lake Powell at White Canyon and Hite, Utah. Data were collected from February 17, 2005 to February 23, 2005. Bare-earth extraction was not performed on this dataset due to the scarceness of vegetation in the interest area.

Publications associated with this dataset can be found at NCALM's Data Tracking Center

This lidar dataset was collected by NCALM for Philip Dennison and Brian Codding at the University of Utah. This study explores the dynamic impacts of environmental change and biomass harvesting on woodland ecosystems and traditional livelihoods . The study area covers approximately 230 km² in Utah and Bears Ears, New Mexico.

Publications associated with this dataset can be found at NCALM's Data Tracking Center

PI: David Pollard, Stanford University. The survey area is a 54 square kilometer rectangle near the town of Mexican Hat, Utah. This area was flown on February 24, 2005 and covers the Raplee Ridge anticline. Bare-earth extraction was not performed on this dataset due to the scarceness of vegetation in the interest area.

Publications associated with this dataset can be found at NCALM's Data Tracking Center

The EarthScope Intermountain Seismic Belt Lidar project acquired high resolution lidar topography data in tectonically active regions in Utah and Wyoming, including Yellowstone and Teton National Parks, as part of the EarthScope Facility project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF).

Publications associated with this dataset can be found at NCALM's Data Tracking Center

As part of an ongoing USGS StateMap funded research project on rock glaciers in Utah, the Utah Geological Survey (UGS) collected point cloud data of a small rock glacier in September 2025. This is the third data acquisition for this project, with the others being in September 2023 and 2024. The project area is located within Snowbird Ski Resort in Little Cottonwood Canyon, Salt Lake County, Utah. The goal of this project is to perform yearly repeat flights of the area and conduct topographic differencing to detect changes and movement in the body of the rock glacier.

This lidar dataset was collected as part of an NCALM Seed grant for Cole Speed at the University of Texas. This goal of this project was to be able to interpret fluvial processes from the ancient rock record by linking geomorphology to stratigraphy using 3-D outcrops of exhumed channel-belt deposits in eastern Utah. The survey area covers approximately 58.25 km² .

Publications associated with this dataset can be found at NCALM's Data Tracking Center

This lidar data set includes unclassified swath LAS 1.4 files, classified LAS 1.4 files, breaklines, digital elevation models (DEMs), first return digital surface models (DSMs), and intensity imagery. Geographic Extent: Fourteen partial counties in Utah, covering approximately 7,005 total square kilometers; partial coverage of three counties covering approximately 182 square kilometers in the Minidoka QL1 AOI. This area is part of the Bear Lake / Cache Valley QL1 AOI. Dataset Description: The Utah 2016 Lidar project called for the planning, acquisition, processing, and derivative products of lidar data to be collected at a nominal pulse spacing (NPS) of 0.35 meters. Project specifications are based on the U.S. Geological Survey National Geospatial Program Base Lidar Specification, Version 1.2. The data was developed based on a horizontal projection/datum of NAD83 (2011), UTM Zone 12, meters and vertical datum of NAVD88 (GEOID12B), meters. Lidar data was delivered as flightline-extent unclassified LAS swaths, as processed Classified LAS 1.4 files formatted to 215 individual 1,000 meter x 1,000 meter tiles; as tiled intensity imagery, as tiled bare earth DEMs, and as tiled first return DSMs all tiled a 2,000 meter x 2,000 meter schema (82 tiles). Continuous breaklines were produced in Esri shapefile format. Ground Conditions: Lidar was partially collected in fall of 2016, while no snow was on the ground and rivers were at or below normal levels. In order to post process the lidar data to meet task order specifications and meet ASPRS vertical accuracy guidelines, Quantum Spatial, Inc. established a total of 28 ground control points that were used to calibrate the lidar to known ground locations established throughout the project area. An additional 5 independent accuracy checkpoints, 5 in Bare Earth and Urban landcovers (5 NVA points), 6 in the Shrubs and Tall Grass category (6 VVA points), were used to assess the vertical accuracy of the data. These checkpoints were not used to calibrate or post process the data.

This data set contains the University of Utah's Halo Photonics Stream Line Scanning Doppler LiDAR Data. Data was collected during intense observation periods between 1 May and 31 May 2013 during the Mountain Terrain Atmospheric Modeling and Observations (MATERHORN-X) Spring field campaign. Files are the original data and have not been quality controlled. The format is ASCII tab separated and different scanning strategies have different file naming conventions. The time stamps are based off of UTC time for all the instruments for the MATERHORN-X data, unless it was stated otherwise. Please refer to the readme file for more information.

Great Salt Lake lake-bed contour linesCreated in April 2020 by:Braedon Cook, Ian Hazel, and David MaackSenior Capstone in GIS ProjectUniversity of Utah, Department of Geographyfor the Utah Division of Forestry, Fire and State Lands.Horizontal spatial reference: NAD 1983 2011 UTM Zone 12NVertical Coordinate System: NAVD88 (GEOID12B)Methodology: Contour lines were generated at one-foot elevation intervals, from the low point of the LiDAR data (4192 feet) and the historic high water mark (4212 feet). Lines were cleaned of topology errors, including overlaps, pseudo-nodes, and dangles, then merged into polygons which are separated into sections north and south of the Union Pacific causeway. Bear River Bay, as well as man-made portions of the lake including the Morton Salt Grantsville Solar Evaporation Facility, wildlife refuges, and other impoundments, were not included in the project. Interpolated from LiDAR data acquired between September 3 and November 30, 2016, by Quantum Spatial, Inc., at lake level 4,189 feet above NGVD 1929 (Source: USGS).Source: LiDAR data delivered as part of the Utah 2016 - Great Salt Lake AOI LiDAR acquisition. Please contact forestry@utah.gov or agrc@utah.gov for more information on the LiDAR these data were derived from.

This data set contains the University of Utah's Halo Photonics Streamline Scanning Doppler LiDAR data. Data was collected during intense observation periods between 25 September and 13 October 2012 during the Mountain Terrain Atmospheric Modeling and Observations (MATERHORN-X) Fall field campaign. Files are the original data and have not been quality controlled. The format is ASCII tab separated and different scanning strategies have different file naming conventions. The time stamps are based off of UTC time for all the instruments for the MATERHORN-X data, unless it was stated otherwise. Please refer to the readme file for more information.

To support the modeling of the Colorado River water storage area capacity tables by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Utah Water Science Center in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Utah and Arizona, the USGS Earth Resources Observation and Science (EROS) Center has created an integrated 1-meter topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) for Lake Powell, the second largest man-made reservoir in the United States. Located in south-central Utah and north-central Arizona, Lake Powell is a reservoir on the Colorado River created by the flooding of a natural canyon by the construction of Glen Canyon Dam. The new Lake Powell TBDEM consists of the best available multi-source topographic and bathymetric elevation data for Lake Powell onshore and offshore areas. The Lake Powell TBDEM integrates three different data sources including topographic light detection and ranging (lidar) point cloud data, multibeam bathymetric surveys, and historic topographic surveys obtained from the Department of the Interior (DOI) Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and USGS Woods Hole Coastal Marine Science Center. The topographic, bathymetric, and historic topographic surveys were sorted and prioritized based on survey date, accuracy, spatial distribution, and point density to develop a TBDEM model based on the best available elevation data. The Lake Powell TBDEM spatial resolution is 1-meter with the general location ranging from Glen Canyon Dam northwest of Page, Arizona to White Canyon, Utah with elevations from 948.28 meters to 1440.94 meters referenced to North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD88), National Geodetic Survey Geoid 12B. The topographic lidar survey was acquired from 4/2/18 to 4/3/18. The bathymetry survey was acquired from 10/8/17 to 11/15/17. The historic topographic surveys ranged from 1947-1959. Some of the nearshore void zone (not covered by lidar or multibeam) was filled with historic topographic surveys digitized from historical maps from 1947-1959 and a kriging interpolation as published by the USGS Coastal National Elevation Database (CoNED) Applications Project at https://doi.org/10.2112/SI76-008. Additional information regarding the CoNED Applications Project is located at https://www.usgs.gov/land-resources/eros/coned.

This dataset was collected as an NCALM Seed grant for PI Lawrence T Kellum, University of Utah, for the purpose of assesing the hydrodynamics of the Lake Bonneville Stockton Bar highstand.

Publications associated with this dataset can be found at NCALM's Data Tracking Center

Last updated: May 3, 2022This dataset was derived from the breakline features associated with the 2016 Great Salt Lake LiDAR project. To create this dataset the Lake Pond features were extracted from the GreatSaltLake_Breaklines shapefile and converted into polygons. All polygons outside of the main north and south arms of the lake were removed. The Elevation_m (elev_m) & Elevation_ft (elev_ft) values represent the elevation of the water when the LiDAR was acquired.More information can be found on the UGRC data page for this layer:https://gis.utah.gov/data/water/gsl-resources/