Challenges Integrating Bathymetric and Topographic Datasets of American Samoa
Abstract
Integrated bathymetric-topographic digital elevation models (DEMs) encompassing the region of American Samoa have been built by the National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC), an office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in conjunction with the Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences (CIRES) at the University of Colorado at Boulder. A 3 arc-second (~90 m) DEM spans the islands of Tutuila, Ofu, Olesega, and Ta’u, while a 1/3 arc-second (~10 m) DEM covers Tutuila Island. The DEMs are used to simulate tsunami propagation and inundation as input for the Method of Splitting Tsunami model developed by NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory, and will improve the understanding of tsunami dynamics in the region. The DEMs were generated from diverse digital datasets that were obtained from NGDC, the United States Geological Survey, Fagatele Bay National Marine Sanctuary, and other U.S. agencies, and are part of a multi-year project by NOAA to develop tsunami inundation DEMs of 75 U.S. coastal communities. This poster focuses on the challenges of integrating bathymetric and topographic datasets to create a DEM that is seamless at the coast. Challenges included: inconsistencies between datasets, horizontally shifted data, vegetation in unprocessed lidar topography, features not accurately represented in any dataset, and errors in many of the datasets. We also describe our methods to assess DEM quality and accuracy. A shaded relief image of the 3 arc-second American Samoa DEM. Shown with 5 times vertical exaggeration.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009AGUFM.U21E2188L
- Keywords:
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- 1910 INFORMATICS / Data assimilation;
- integration and fusion;
- 3045 MARINE GEOLOGY AND GEOPHYSICS / Seafloor morphology;
- geology;
- and geophysics;
- 9355 GEOGRAPHIC LOCATION / Pacific Ocean