Public access to LiDAR elevation data is becoming a reality in Wisconsin, with the first datasets slated to go online early in 2013.

This effort was led by team made up of members from WisconsinView, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Ayres Associates, the US Geological Survey, the State Cartographer’s Office, and the Wisconsin Geographic Information Coordination Council (WIGICC). In addition, the Land Information Officers Network (LION) assisted.

The group developed a plan to use WisconsinView as a portal for public access to the data. WisconsinView already hosts a variety of aerial photography (such as WROC and NAIP) and is a logical fit for LiDAR data. The plan is to begin with derived elevation products (DEMs) and eventually serve all collected data.

Initially, WisconsinView will host data for many of the CDBG federal grant-funded counties in the southern part of the state. CDBG funding was provided to counties primarily affected by flooding in 2008. Additional counties will be added in future phases of the project.

Counties included in phase 1 are: Adams, Columbia, Crawford, Fond du Lac, Grant, Green, Iowa, Jefferson, Juneau, Kenosha, Lafayette, Monroe, Richland, Rock, Sauk, Vernon and Waukesha.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (Floodplain Mapping) provided the data for phase 1 of the project. The DNR produces a standard, 5-foot resolution, hydro-flattened, bare-earth DEM from county LiDAR data. The DEMs on WisconsinView will be in both ArcGRID and IMG formats. Data will be freely available, as with WROC and NAIP imagery, and distribution will be county-by-county.

See this Mapping Bulletin article for information on data status and download information.