Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Topobathymetric Digital Elevation Model (TBDEM) of the Milwaukee River Estuary, MIlwaukee, WI and adjacent terrestrial and Lake Michigan nearshore coastal areas

November 16, 2022

This topobathymetric digital elevation model (TBDEM) mosaic represents the topography and bathymetry for the Milwaukee River Estuary in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and adjacent terrestrial and Lake Michigan nearshore coastal areas. The TBDEM was produced in support of modeling and for developing a physical habitat framework to help with understanding the effects from multidirectional currents and seiche effects associated with the mixing of river flows with Lake Michigan backwater. The TBDEM mosaic is built off existing terrestrial, nearshore, and estuary frameworks developed for other areas around the Great Lakes and the Milwaukee River Harbor. Ranging from 2008-2015, land elevations derived from lidar and historic topographic surveys and bathymetric multibeam sonar were used to generate the seamless Milwaukee River Estuary TBDEM from four different data frameworks: (1) 2015 Milwaukee River Estuary Bathymetry (Dow, 2018), (2) 2015 SEWRPC Topographic LIDAR for Southeast, Wisconsin (Office for Coastal Management (OCM) Partners, 2018), (3) 2012 NOAA Digital Coast Topographic and Bathymetric LIDAR (OCM, 2017), and (4) 2008 NOAA Digital Coast Topographic and Bathymetric LIDAR (OCM, 2008). The TBDEM is provided as a 0.6-meter resolution raster dataset in GeoTIFF format. References include: (1) Dow, Brennan,2018, Assessment and mapping of the Milwaukee Estuary Habitat, Theses and Dissertations. 1785: Milwaukee, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee, M.S., 49 p., [Also available at https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/1785]. (2) Office for Coastal Management (OCM) Partners, 2018: 2015 SEWRPC Lidar: Southeast WI (Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Walworth, Washington, Waukesha Counties) (published 20180619): NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, accessed January 25, 2021 at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/58870 (3) Office for Coastal Management (OCM) Partners, 2017: 2012 USACE Great Lakes Topobathy Lidar: Lake Michigan (published 20170702): NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, accessed January 25, 2021 at https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/49736. (4) Office for Coastal Management (OCM) Partners, 2008: 2008 USACE Great Lakes Topo/Bathy Lidar: Wisconsin (published 2008): NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information, accessed January 25, 2021, https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/inport/item/50070.

Publication Year 2022
Title Topobathymetric Digital Elevation Model (TBDEM) of the Milwaukee River Estuary, MIlwaukee, WI and adjacent terrestrial and Lake Michigan nearshore coastal areas
DOI 10.5066/P984MLKX
Authors Brennan Dow, Jana S Stewart, Faith A Fitzpatrick, Brandon Krumwiede
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Digital Object Identifier Catalog
USGS Organization Upper Midwest Water Science Center