Statewide Seamless 0.5m Lidar DEM, Minnesota, 2025
Go to Section:- Overview
- Data Quality
- Data Organization
- Coordinate System
- Attributes
- Distribution - Get Data
- Metadata Reference
Section 1: Overview
Originator:State of Minnesota 3DGeomatics Committeee
Title:
Statewide Seamless 0.5m Lidar DEM, Minnesota, 2025
Abstract:
This data is a seamless representation of Lidar derived Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for the state of Minnesota. The data was collected between 2021 and 2023 at Lidar Acquisition Block (LABs) levels or work units within some LABs. Lidar data was collected at work units level where they exist. Please see "Areas Covered" section of https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/elevation/lidar_gen2.html for additonal information on LABs and work units.
Data collection was guided by the Minnesota Lidar Plan, a collaborative effort led by the Minnesota Geospatial Advisory Council’s 3D Geomatics Committee and the Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo), with support from federal partners such as USGS and FEMA. The plan outlines a comprehensive strategy to acquire new, high-resolution lidar data across the state to replace outdated datasets collected over a decade ago. The plan was driven by the need for more accurate elevation data to support a wide range of applications, including hydrologic modeling, infrastructure planning, forest resource assessment, and environmental monitoring. Minnesota’s lidar data collected between 2008 and 2012 (classified as QL3), no longer meets modern standards and fails to reflect significant landscape changes due to natural events and human development. The new data meets or exceeds USGS Quality Level 1 (QL1) standards, offering higher point density and improved accuracy.
The seamless 0.5m Lidar DEM is made up of data only final vertical accuracy (FVA) checked Lidar data and organized by standards developed and accepted by Minnesota's 3D Geomatics Committee. The DEMs received from contractors were blended to remove overlaps that occurred between LABs and in some cases within LABs and reaggregated using GDAL tools and ArcGIS Pro.
The creation of this seamless data was led by SMEs from Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) with MnGeo's support, in collaboration with SME's from Federal, State and County agencies.
Purpose:
A foundational data product that Minnesota has as an authoritative, statewide, seamless 0.5-meter DEM that can also serve as the building block for additional derived products for the purposes of improving water quality, flood emergency preparedness and response, floodplain mapping, transportation planning and design, recreational planning and design, urban planning and to provide more efficient and effective project planning and execution. This project was primarily funded by Federal, State and County partners.
For more about the Project, see: https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/elevation/lidar_gen2.html
Time Period of Content Date:
Spring 2021-Summer 2023
Currentness Reference:
Ground condition
Progress:
In work
Maintenance and Update Frequency:
Irregular
Spatial Extent of Data:
Partial, Minnesota
Bounding Coordinates:
-94.714600
-92.120234
46.395540
44.211950
Place Keywords:
Minnesota, MN.
Theme Keywords:
elevation, lidar, DEM, digital elevation model, contour, topographic, topo, DTM, LAS, breakline
Theme Keyword Thesaurus:
ISO 19115
Access Constraints:
All data is in the public domain and there are no access constraints.
Use Constraints:
See Disclaimer field for complete use conditions.
Contact Person Information:
Sean Vaughn,
GIS Hydrologist, Lidar Data Steward
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
800 Oak Savanna Lane SW
Cambridge,
MN
55008
Phone: 763-284-7223
Email: sean.vaughn@state.mn.us
Browse Graphic:
None available
Section 2: Data Quality
Attribute Accuracy:
Logical Consistency:
All deliverables were quality checked by MN DNR and passed inspection.
Completeness:
Complete
Horizontal Positional Accuracy:
Meets or exceeds horizontal accuracy of 0.6m RMSE. The NAD83 (HARN) datum was used.
Vertical Positional Accuracy:
The NAVD88 (Geoid09) vertical datum was used.
Data was produced to meet ASPRS Positional Accuracy Standard for Digital Geospatial Data (2014) for a 10-cm RMSEz Vertical Accuracy Class
Lineage:
Data Acquisition:
Below are summaries of data acquisition extracted from vendor provided metadata and/or reports related to LABs with data in the statewide 0.5m Lidar DEM dataset. Please visit https://www.mngeo.state.mn.us/chouse/elevation/lidar_gen2.html for detailed metadata on the LABs and work units where applicable.
The Lower Mississippi project involved five work units with data collection from April 16, 2021, to May 19, 2022, resulting in hydro-flattened bare-earth models with a 0.5-meter pixel size. The project included planning, acquisition, processing, and production of QL1 and QL0 lidar data with an aggregate nominal pulse spacing (ANPS) of 0.35 meters and 8 points per square meter (ppsm) for QL1, and 0.18 meters and 30 ppsm for QL0.
The Central Mississippi project, which supports the 3DEP mission and various state and local agencies, involved six work units with data collection from April 25, 2022, to June 2, 2022, and produced 0.5-meter hydro-flattened Raster DEMs.
The Missouri River Big Sioux project, executed by Fugro Geospatial, Inc. with Terrasurv, Inc. as a subcontractor, involved planning, acquisition, processing, and derivative products of lidar data collected at an ANPS of 0.35 meters (8ppsm) from April 27, 2022, to May 27, 2023.
Rainy Lake project executed by NV5 Geospatial involved the acquisition, processing, and validation of topographic lidar data over a 11,989-square-mile area in Minnesota. Data was collected between April 16, 2021 and May 17, 2021. The data acquisition followed strict specifications, including an average point density of 8 points/m² and a vertical accuracy requirement of ≤10 cm RMSEz.
The Lake Superior project executed by NV5 Geospatial involved the acquisition, processing, and validation of topographic lidar data over a 4,976-square-mile area in northeastern Minnesota. Data was collected between April 16 and May 18, 2021. The data acquisition followed strict specifications, including an average point density of 8 points/m² and a vertical accuracy requirement of ≤10 cm RMSEz.
The Upper Mississippi River Minnesota LiDAR Mapping Project executed by Merrick-Surdex Joint Venture, LLP(MSJV) involves acquisition, processing, and validation of topographic lidar data over 13,731 square miles in Minnesota in six work units. Data was collected between May 23, 2022, and May 20, 2023. The data acquisition followed specifications required to meet Quality Level One (QL1) lidar specifications, pulse density of greater than or equal to eight pulses per square meter (≥8ppsm) Aggregate Nominal Pulse Density (ANPD), and pulse spacing of less than or equal to thirty-five centimeters (≤0.35m) Aggregate Nominal Pulse Spacing (ANPS).
The Minnesota River West project executed by Merrick-Surdex Joint Venture, LLP (MSJV) in three work units involves acquisition, processing, and validation of topographic lidar data over 8,928.58 square miles in the State of Minnesota. The data collection spanned from early May 25, 2023 to June 20, 2023. The data collected has been certified to meet stringent accuracy thresholds of ≤10 cm RMSEz, ≤19.6 cm NVA, and ≤30 cm VVA, with relative vertical accuracy within 6–8 cm.
Becker County project project executed by Merrick-Surdex Joint Venture, LLP (MSJV) involves acquisition, processing, and validation of topographic lidar data over 1,474.73 square miles in the State of Minnesota. The data collection spanned from early May 15, 2022 to September 18, 2022. The data collected has been certified to meet accuracy thresholds of ≤10 cm RMSEz, ≤19.6 cm NVA, and ≤30 cm VVA, with relative vertical accuracy within 6–8 cm.
Data organization:
Lidar acquisition was completed across the state by third party vendors as part of the USGS 3D Elevation Program.
The 3D Geomatics Committee - Lidar Derivatives Subgroup, in collaboration with MnGeo Staff, developed multiple components needed for the development for this dataset. In 2022, the 1 km Tile Index was developed and shared with lidar vendors to be utilized in lidar acquisition. The 1 km Tile index supports the statewide lidar data structure in both storage and processing.
The data architecture, based on the 1 km Tile Index, organizes the data delivered in Lidar Acquisition Blocks to a standardized architecture that supports building mosaic datasets of the base lidar data and the derivative lidar data.
Steps to combine 0.5k tiled DEMs into 1k tiled DEM:
New Mosaic Raster Datasets were created in ArcGIS Pro and populated with all 500-meter (0.5k) DEMs delivered by vendors. Important settings such as coordinate system, raster processing, and mosaic post-processing were configured as follows;
i. Advanced Input Data Options
1. Coordinate System for Input Data: NAD_1983_2011_UTM_Zone_15N / VCS:NAVD_1988_Geoid18
ii. Raster Processing
1. Check Calculate Statistics
2. Check Build Raster Pyramids
iii. Mosaic Post-Processing
1. Check Update Cell Size Ranges
2. Check Update Boundary
3. Check Estimate Mosaic Dataset Statistics
The Tile Index for the Work Unit or Lidar Block was used to export the layer as a separate feature class, which was then used to select and export 1KM Tiles from the 1K Tile Index. This layer was used as an iterator in a ModelBuilder model to clip the Mosaic Dataset to the 1KM Tiles.
The ModelBuilder process iterated through the Mosaic Dataset, clipping it to the 1KM Tiles and naming the output files based on the 1KM Tile name in MN34INDEX. The settings for the Clip Raster tool included a No Data Value of -999999 and LZW compression. Analysis of the output showed no variations in cell values, row and column extent, statistics, file size, and MINUS between cell values
Data blending:
Minnesota’s lidar acquisition has occurred over multiple years and utilized multiple vendors. Overlap between these collects requires blending/feathering techniques to reduce the edge effects due to vendor processes and landscape differences. A formal process was developed and refined to create a seamless dataset across Minnesota using ArcGIS Pro geoprocessing tools.
Data aggregation:
Once data organization, standardization of 0.5k tiled DEMs where they exist to 1k DEMs, and blending/feathering of overlap areas are completed, GDAL tools were used to aggregate the 1k tiled DEMs into 100k tiled cloud optimized geotiif (COG). The 100k tiled COGs were then mosaicked into a single virtual raster template (VRT) of the 0.5m Lidar DEM for the state. ArcGIS Pro was used to create an image service with the statewide VRT as input.
Section 3: Spatial Data Organization (not used in this metadata)
Section 4: Coordinate System
Horizontal Coordinate Scheme:
Universal Transverse Mercator
UTM Zone Number:
15
Horizontal Datum:
NAD83
Horizontal Units:
meters
Vertical Datum:
Vertical Units:
Depth Datum:
not applicable
Depth Units:
Section 5: Attributes
Overview:
1. LAS data were classified using the following standard ASPRS categories:
1 Unclassified
2 Ground (Bare Earth)
3 Low Vegetation (less than 1.1 meters)
4 Medium Vegetation (1.11 - 2.4 meters)
5 High Vegetation (2.41 - 200m)
6 Buildings
7 Noise
8 Model Keypoint
9 Water
10 Water Edge (withheld / ignored ground) (Bare-earth points within 1-meter of the water polygons are re-classified to Class 10)
11 Scan Edge (unreliable points near the extreme edge of swath)
12 Overlap (not used)
14 Bridge Decks
Detailed Citation:
Table Detail:
Section 6: Distribution
Publisher:
MnGeo and Minnesota Department of Natural Resources
Publication Date:
10/28/2025
Contact Person Information:
MnGeo,
GIS Data Specialist
Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo)
600 N Robert Street, Suite 2800
St. Paul,
MN
55146
Phone: 651-201-2499
Email: gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
Distributor's Data Set Identifier:
Statewide Seamless 0.5m Lidar DEM
Online Linkage: I AGREE
to the notice in "Distribution Liability" above. Clicking to agree will either begin the download process, link to a service, or provide more instructions. See "Ordering Instructions" above for details.
Section 7: Metadata Reference
Metadata Date:
10/28/2025
Contact Person Information:
MnGeo,
GIS Data Specialist
Minnesota Geospatial Information Office (MnGeo)
600 N Robert Street, Suite 2800
St. Paul,
MN
55146
Phone: 651-201-2499
Email: gisinfo.mngeo@state.mn.us
Metadata Standard Name:
Minnesota Geographic Metadata Guidelines
Metadata Standard Version:
1.2