Automated extraction of hydrographically corrected contours for the conterminous United States: the US Geological Survey US Topo product

Abstract

The US Topo is a new generation of digital topographic maps delivered by the US Geological Survey (USGS). These maps include contours in the traditional 7.5-min quadrangle format. The process for producing digital elevation contours has evolved over several years, but automated production of contours for the US Topo product began in 2010. This process, which is quite complex yet fairly elegant, automatically chooses the proper USGS quadrangle, captures the corresponding 1/3 as grid points from the national elevation data set (3D Elevation Program), and adjusts elevation data to better fit water features from the National Hydrography Dataset. After additional processing, such as identifying and tagging depressions, constructing proper contours across double-line streams, and omitting contours from water bodies, contours are automatically produced for the quadrangle. The resulting contours are then compared to the contours on the original (legacy) topographic map sheets, or to the 10-m contours from the original map sheets. Where the elevation surface used to generate the contours has been derived from the previously published contours for a quadrangle, the generated contours match the legacy contours quite well. Where newer elevation sources, such as lidar, originate the elevation surface, generated contours may vary significantly from the previous cartographically produced contours due to more accurate representations of the surface, and less reliance on cartographic interpretation.