The Most Detailed Map of US Waters That You've Ever Seen (2023)
13 comments
·January 19, 2025codingdave
eppp
It also has a lot of features that dont exist and is missing several that do.
Pretty strange. It misses a pond that is completely obvious on the lidar elevation map.
adamtaylor_13
Trying to scroll anywhere on the map crashes the website on iOS. Not sure what that’s about.
UltraSane
It is downloading a MASSIVE amount of data. Good stress test for browsers.
MichaelZuo
How can that be the case when e.g. chrome can handle opening multi-GB PDFs?
null
ghaff
Relatively less detail I'm sure but Raven Maps has a beautiful large laminated wall map of landforms and drainage in the continental US.
yuppiepuppie
I’d be interested to know how they gathered all that data. Given the very detailed ponds and streams that may seem invisible to our daily lives, did they really send someone out there to survey all of it? Or is this via satellite imagery or something similar?
maxerickson
It's derived from LIDAR scans.
https://www.usgs.gov/ngp-standards-and-specifications/elevat...
I'm not sure it's their best product for elevation anymore, but USGS also publishes 3dep, which is a unified layer of the best available elevation data for the US.
qwertyuiop_
It’s all those “ufos” with clearly marked FAA mandated navigation lights.
ychn114
It’s amazing to see how data visualization can bring something as essential as water to life.
gunian
water wars of the 2020s landlord allegedly pays for water but idk :)
rgrieselhuber
“ Water plays a central role in all our lives.”
You don’t say.
The detail is impressive - it even has the little 12" wide, 6" deep creek that runs through my property and the neighbors seasonal puddle/not-even-a-pond that forms in his field after heavy rains.