Looking for bathymetric (underwater elevation/depth) data? Go to our Bathymetry Data page.
Need LiDAR (point cloud) data? Go to our LiDAR page.
Elevation data generally comes in two formats: contour lines or digital elevation models (DEMs). Contour lines are the elevation lines you often see on topographic maps and they are generally measured in feet or metres above sea level. DEMs are raster datasets that have pixels like a digital image, except that each pixel contains an elevation value for the land area (e.g. 900m2 in a DEM with a 30m resolution) that the pixel covers. It is possible to create DEMs from contours and contours from DEMs using GIS software.
- DEMs: digital elevation models represent the land or "bare earth" (no trees, buildings, etc.)
- DSMs: digital surface models represent the reflective surface of the earth (bare earth plus trees, buildings)
- DTMs: digital terrain models are either synonymous with DEMs or comprised of a network of vector points instead of a continuous raster
- Further details here and here
Below is a list of elevation datasets by geography, beginning with Ottawa-Gatineau and moving up to the entire world. Those available only to Carleton students, faculty, and staff are marked with a Carleton logo. All others are freely available to anyone.
Elevation data for Ottawa-Gatineau | Ontario | Canada | USA & North America | International
Ottawa-Gatineau
Contours
- Ottawa 1:2,000 Scale Topographic Data contours
- Ottawa 1:25,000 Scale Topographic Data contours
DEMs & DSMs
- Ottawa 3D surface (part of the Ottawa 3D Buildings data package)
- Ottawa LiDAR-derived Digital Surface Model (2006-2015) - 1m resolution
- Available in both TIF files for raster DEM and LAS files for LiDAR
- Ottawa-Gatineau Digital Elevation Models - 25cm resolution
- Freely available Digital Raster Acquisition Project for the East (DRAPE) 2014 DEM & 2014 DSM - 2m resolution
- Freely available Québec (including Gatineau) - LiDAR produits dérivés 1-2m resolution
- Easiest way to access (as of January 2022): Forêt Ouverte which is mostly in French
- Click the Menu button at top left, then Catalog
- Select LiDAR
- In the "Index et téléchargement" section, find product(s) and click the + symbol to add a download index grid
- Click on relevant locations in the index to download ("Accéder")
- Freely available: see High Resolution Digital Elevation Model (HRDEM) - CanElevation Series (2-5m) under Canada, below
Ontario
Contours
- Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources contours - 5m resolution for southern Ontario, 10m for near northern Ontario
- Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources contours for free from Ontario GeoHub - 5m resolution for sourthern Ontario, 10m near northern Ontario
DEMs & DTMs
The Ontario Elevation Index is a good place to check which provincial elevation collections cover your area of interest.
- Provincial Digital Elevation Model Version - 30m resolution
- Also available for free from Ontario GeoHub (look under Product Packages in the description for downloads)
- Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources spot height - 10m resolution
- Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Digital Terrain Models for cities and counties in southern Ontario
- Digital Raster Acquisition Project for the East (DRAPE) 2014 DEM & 2014 DSM - 2m resolution
- North West Ontario Orthophotography Project (NWOOP) 2017 DEM - 2m resolution
- South Western Ontario Orthophotography Project (SWOOP) 2015 DSM & 2015 DTM - 2m resolution
- South Central Ontario Orthophotography Project (SCOOP) 2013 DTMs - 2m resolution
- City of Toronto Digital Terrain Model (DTM)
Canada
Contours
- Elevation in Canada - CanVec Series
- National and provincial/territorial contour data at multiple scales (1:50,000 to 1:15,000,000) via the Prepackaged options
- Clip to a specific area using the Geospatial Data Extraction tool, making sure to select CanVec as the data to be extracted
- Download DEMs (below) and then follow our step-by-step guide on making contours using Global Mapper on the library's GIS computers
- Provincial and territorial datasets:
- Alberta: 10m (20m in mountains) contour lines; requires free registration to download; free of charge; Select entire dataset (or draw a subset) to add to cart
- Manitoba - 1:20,000; requires free registration; part of Topographic Maps dataset and contours also found in LiDAR subsection
- Prince Edward Island - 2m contours; dataset found near bottom of list on linked page
DEMs & DSMs
Looking for a DEM for all of Canada? The Commission for Environmental Cooperation has a 1km Elevation dataset that's seamless for all of North America (look for it under Reference layers in the map). For other resolutions or smaller regions:
Dataset | Coverage | Resolution |
ArcticDEM | All land north of 60° (NT, NU, YT) | 2-5m |
Canada DEM | Canada | 30m |
Canada DSM | Canada | 20m |
High Resolution DEM | Parts of Canada | 2-5m |
Elevation 2007 | North America (seamless) | 1km |
Provincial/territorial datasets | AB, MB, NB, NS, QC, YT | varies |
- ArcticDEM - 2m to 5m resolution
- Will "encompass all land area north of 60° north latitude" and includes Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut regions
- For individual tile download, use the NGA ArcticDEM web map to find your location, click the More Info link for the relevant tiles, then uncompress/extract the .gz and .tar files
- It is also possible to download mosaics of the entire dataset at various resolutions (2m-1km)
- Canadian Digital Elevation Model (CDEM) - 1:50,000 / 30m resolution and 1:250,000, and Canadian Digital Surface Model Mosaic (CDSM), 20m resolution
- Elevation model is the ground elevation and surface model includes buildings, trees, etc.
- Easiest way to download the CDEM tiles or CDSM tiles across Canada:
- use the Index of Geospatial Products
- click the Themes tab
- under Elevation, choose either CDEM or CDSM
- zoom into your area of interest
- select the tile(s) you are interested in downloading
- If you want many tiles, you may want to try the Geospatial Data Extraction tool but it has a download limit of 50,000km2 per session
- You can generate contours from this data using Global Mapper and our help guide
- High Resolution Digital Elevation Model (HRDEM) - CanElevation Series - 2m resolution (south) / 5m (north of forest line)
- We recommend following the instructions for CDEM/CDSM via the Index of Geospatial Products and selecting HRDEM under Elevations
- Includes digital terrain model (DTM) and digital surface model (DSM) generated from LiDAR data
- Only some areas of Canada are covered (Nunavut; areas of the Northwest Territories; Gatineau; southern Manitoba; areas of Quebec, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, etc.)
- You can also download the KMZ (Google Earth) file from the above link to both view available areas and download the desired tiles
- DMTI Clutter and and Digital Elevation Models - 30m and 90m resolution / 1:50,000 and 1:250,000 (available upon request gis@carleton.ca)
- Provincial and territorial datasets:
- Alberta - Various LiDAR and LiDAR-derived elevation datasets; requires free registration
- Manitoba - 1:20,000; requires free registration
- New Brunswick - 1m DEM
- Nova Scotia - 20m resolution; make sure to read the downloading instructions
- Québec - LiDAR produits dérivés 1-2m resolution
- Easiest way to access (as of January 2022): Forêt Ouverte which is mostly in French
- Click the Menu button at top left, then Catalog
- Select LiDAR
- In the "Index et téléchargement" section, find product(s) and click the + symbol to add a download index grid
- Click on relevant locations in the index to download ("Accéder")
- Yukon - variety of resolutions
- Can use GeoYukon to clip and download
- If you know the location you want, can download 1m DEMs via FTP
United States of America
Contours
- Download some DEMs (below) and then follow our step-by-step guide on making contours using Global Mapper on the library's GIS computers
DEMs
- The United States Geological Survey (USGS) has numerous elevation products available for download, including:
- 3DEP products (variety of resolutions depending on region) via the National Map Viewer
- Commission for Environmental Cooperation's Elevation 2007 - 1km resolution
- Download from the Environmental Atlas (it's under Reference layers)
- Seamless for North America and comes in one download
- Greenland glacier elevation data from Oceans Melting Greenland project - 25m resolution
International
Contours
- Look at open data site(s) for your location
- Some will have contours and some will not, but it's worthwhile to check
- For example, OS Open Data has 10m contours for the United Kingdom
- Download some DEMs (below) and then follow our step-by-step guide on making contours using Global Mapper on the library's GIS computers
DEMs
- ASTER GDEM - 30m resolution
- Step 1 in this help guide takes you through selecting the tile(s) you need using NASA EarthData; requires free sign-up to download
- ArcticDEM - 2m to 5m resolution
- Will "encompass all land area north of 60° north latitude"
- There is a download workflow outlined above
- DivaGIS country level (extracted from SRTM) - 90m resolution
- Global Land Survey Digital Elevation Model (GLSDEM) - 90m resolution
- Requires free sign-up to download from USGS GloVis application
- JAXA ALOS Global Digital Surface Model - 30m resolution
- Scroll down this page to find instructions for download; requires free signup to download
- Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) - 90m resolution