Elevation Map of the Mexico City Basin and Surrounding Volcanoes

Elevation Map of the Mexico City Basin and Surrounding Volcanoes

Dirk Masuch Oesterreich

The image shows the volcanic landscape of the Mexico City basin. A major morphological feature is the steep topographic decline to the south into the Rio Balsas basin.

Elevation data: Mexico-DEM, based on SRTM data.

Vector overlay: Digital Chart of the World. Some inaccuracies may occur.

Download of sample data in e00 format
Mexico City and Vulcanoes
Villahermosa and Gulf Coast

Order instruction, price, shipping:

DVD containing the DEM of Mexico in GRID file format, a shaded relief map, and a ready to run mxd-file for ArcMap

Price: $495 USD, sales tax already included

Payment conveniently through Pay Pal or BANAMEX

As soon as I receive your order I will confirm it and email you instructions for payment via Pay Pal or via deposit on a BANAMEX bank account.

On receiving your payment I will immediately send your DVD by DHL or FedEx.

Information and orders: dmasuch@servicioshidrogis.com

Elevation Map of the Sierra Madre Oriental – Monterrey Salient (Curvatura de Monterrey)

Elevation Map of the Sierra Madre Oriental – Monterrey Salient (Curvatura de Monterrey)

Dirk Masuch Oesterreich

The dominating morphological element in this map is the Monterrey Salient as part of the Sierra Madre Oriental in the central part of the image. Other morphological features of importance are the Potrero Garcia (where the famous Grutas de Garcia are located), Potrero Chico, Minas Viejas Anticline, Sierra La Popa, and the Parras Basin.

Elevation data: Mexico-DEM, based on SRTM data.

Vector overlay: Digital Chart of the World. Some inaccuracies may occur.

( Digital Geodata for Mexico )

( Servicios HidroGIS )

Elevation Map of the Tabasco Disaster Zone

Elevation Map of the Tabasco Disaster Zone

Dirk Masuch Oesterreich

The first map I posted here is, sadly, an overview of the area affected by the recent inundation in the State of Tabasco. Areas depicted in deep blue color are at or below sea level. The color scheme has a resolution of 1 meter. The highest point in the map has an elevation of 85 meters. Note: The vector overlay is from the Digital Chart of the World dataset and may have some inaccuracies. Elevation data of the inundated areas in Tabasco are available here:

Download of elevation data of the Tabasco desaster area in e00 format
Villahermosa and Gulf Coast

( Digital Geodata for Mexico )

( Servicios HidroGIS )

Welcome to Digital Geodata of Mexico!

Welcome to Digital Geodata of Mexico!

On Digital Geodata of Mexico you will find

1. Information about where to get digital geodata in and for Mexico
2. Free high quality elevation maps derived from my SRTM-based DEM for Mexico
3. Probably the best comprehensive digital elevation model for the whole territory of Mexico in one seamless, accurately projected grid

For a complete list of products and sample images please check at Servicios HidroGIS or email me at info@servicioshidrogis.com.

Thank you for your interest and come back often!

( Digital Geodata of Mexico )

( Servicios HidroGIS )

Availability of Digital Geodata in Mexico

Availability of Digital Geodata in Mexico

Dirk Masuch Oesterreich

During the last ten years Mexico has made great efforts in producing and publishing digital geodata at a country wide scale through several government agencies and private enterprises. Three of these entities, two of them governmental and one private, are introduced hereafter.

The principal source of statistical data, maps and georeferenced data is the National Institute for Statistics, Geography, and Informatics (INEGI). Through its network of state offices, INEGI is responsible for data collection, data update and maintenance, and publication of these data at regional and national scales. Geographic information is available in both conventional paper and digital formats.

The standard map scales for topographic information are 1:50000 and 1:250000 in UTM coordinates, covering the entire country. Digital data are available for almost 100 % of the country. The preferred data formats are shapefiles and dxf for vector data and bil and grid files for raster data, respectively. Digital data are identical to the map scale and map area of the respective paper maps.

Orthophotos are available at a scale of 1:20000 covering a great part of the country. Prices are low for the paper maps and moderate to low for digital data. Basic topographic vector data are available for free download at a scale of 1:1,000,000. 30 meter DEMs covering the entire country are also available at no cost at http://www.inegi.gob.mx.

INEGI also provides municipal vector data of very high detail, which unfortunately are not made available to the general public. Extensive working experience with INEGI digital data confirmed a generally high quality of both raster and vector data. Occasionally, confusion arises as to the projection parameters of the digital data. Former Mexican geographic data were referenced to the NAD27 datum. Recent maps are exclusively referenced to the ITRF92 datum. Since the difference between these projections in Mexico is roughly 30-35 meters horizontally and 200-205 meters vertically, projection parameters have to be checked and data have to be reprojected, if necessary.

Geological and geophysical data and maps are produced and made available by the Mexican Geological Survey (Servicio Geologico Mexicano, the former Council of Mineral Resources). The standard map scale for paper maps and digital data is 1:250000. The entire territory of Mexico is already covered by digital geological maps at that scale. The geological map at 1:50000 is progressing quickly.

Geological and geophysical maps are free to download in pdf format in the cartas section of the productos menu at http://www.coremisgm.gob.mx. Digital geologic information is available as ArcInfo coverages or shapefiles, consistent with the area covered by the respective paper map. Digital data are distributed on CDROM by the state offices and unfortunately must be considered expensive.

The exclusive Mexican distributor of ESRI products is a company called SIGSA, located in Mexico City. SIGSA also provides basic topographic data, all sort of digital imagery, and elevation data at various scales and resolutions. Their “Project Mexico” provides data for the whole country at national, state, and municipal levels at scales as high as 1:5000. Mexico’s three major cities (Guadalajara, Monterrey, and Mexico City) are covered at a 1:1000 scale. Information is available at http://www.sigsa.info. Prices for data and consulting services are available only on request and are not necessarily to the cheap side.

( Digital Geodata for Mexico )

( Servicios HidroGIS )

Fact Sheet: Seamless 90 Meters Digital Elevation Model of Mexico

FACT SHEET AND PURCHASE INFORMATION: Seamless 90 Meters Digital Elevation Model of Mexico

By Dirk Masuch Oesterreich

The terrain model developed for Mexico is based on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission Elevation (SRTM) data collected by the Endeavour spacecraft in 2000. For this model the elevation data in DTED Level 1 format were used as distributed by the US Geological Survey. These data have a cell spacing of three arcseconds (aprox. 87 meters) and are referenced to the WGS84 horizontal datum and to the EGM96 geoid. Elevations are with respect to the reflective surface which may be man-made features, vegetation, or the bare surface of the planet.

The DTED data are known in the GIS community as the “finished” SRTM data. Compared to the research level “unfinished” data in HGT format they underwent a number of improvements: Water bodies and lakes of more than 600 meters length were depicted, flattened out and set to a constant height. The ocean elevation was set to 0 meters. Islands are represented in the data whenever their axis is longer than 300 meters or their relief is greater than 15 meters. Spikes and wells in the data were detected and voided out. Small voids of less than 16 cells were filled by interpolation.

However, large voids were left in the data resulting in nodata areas of occasionally significant extension. In the area of Mexico covered by this model voids were found in those parts of the country that exhibit significant changes of relief over short distances, like in the steep canyons of the Sierra Madre Occidental in Northwestern Mexico or the Sierra de Chiapas. The largest nodata area lies in the south of Chihuahua state close to Sinaloa and Sonora states and covers an area of approximately 3000 km².

The Mexico DEM was enhanced in several ways. The DTED data were merged into one seamless DEM. Voids and nodata areas were filled with existing elevation data rather than by interpolation, resulting in a more realistic model in voids of great extent. However, resolution in the affected areas is reduced to 1 km².

The DEM is projected in Decimal Degrees. It is compatible to the majority of vector data available for Mexico as published by the INEGI (National Institute of Statistics, Geography, and Informatics of Mexico) as well as to the data of the Digital Chart of the World.

The Seamless 90 Meters Digital Elevation Model for Mexico is of exceptional detail especially in the lowlands and in the coastal areas of the country. The Gulf Coast of Mexico and its lagoons as well as islands are depicted with great accuracy. The DEM also preserves a very high level of detail in the mountainous regions and in the Transmexican Volvanic Belt. The DEM is one of the most detailed digital elevation models available for Mexico covering the whole country in one seamless and accurately projected DEM.

Projection Parameters of the Seamless 90 Meters Digital Elevation Model for Mexico

Cell Size: 0.001 DD

Data Type: Integer

Number of Rows: 24239 Number of Values: 5415

Number of Columns: 40192 Attribute Data (bytes): 8

BOUNDARY

Xmin: -119.266

Xmax: -85.772

Ymin: 12.996

Ymax: 33.195

COORDINATE SYSTEM DESCRIPTION

Projection: GEOGRAPHIC

Datum: WGS84

Zunits: METERS

Units: DECIMAL DEGREES

Spheroid: WGS84

System Requirements: Arc/Info 7 or higher with GRID Extension or

ArcGIS 8 or higher with Spatial Analyst Extension or

Arcview 3.2 or higher with Spatial Analyst Extension

Pentium III or higher processor

512 MB of RAM (1 GB recommended)

5 GB of available hard disk space

128 MB graphics card (256 MB recommended)

Download of sample data in e00 format
Mexico City and Vulcanoes
Villahermosa and Gulf Coast

Order instruction, price, shipping:

DVD containing the DEM of Mexico in GRID file format, a shaded relief map, and a ready to run mxd-file for ArcMap

Price: $495 USD, sales tax already included

Payment conveniently through Pay Pal or BANAMEX

As soon as I receive your order I will confirm it and email you instructions for payment via Pay Pal or via deposit on a BANAMEX bank account.

On receiving your payment I will immediately send your DVD by DHL or FedEx.

Information and orders: dmasuch@servicioshidrogis.com