The 3D Elevation Program—Supporting Montana’s economy

Introduction

Montana, America’s fourth largest State with an area of 147,040 square miles, is defined by its diverse terrain. The western two-fifths of the State falls within the Rocky Mountains and the eastern three-fifths is in the Great Plains. Because of its location along the Continental Divide, the rivers in Montana drain into either the Pacific Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. Montana is often called the Treasure State due to its mineral wealth, which includes oil, gas, and coal, but the State’s primary economic activity is agriculture. Other economic activities include natural resources conservation, water supply and quality, infrastructure and construction management, flood risk management, and geologic resource assessment and hazard mitigation. Critical applications that meet the State’s management needs depend on light detection and ranging (lidar) data that provide a highly detailed three-dimensional (3D) model of the Earth’s surface and aboveground features.