Introduction

As the northernmost Great Plains State encompassing two geomorphological areas divided by the Missouri River, North Dakota has varied needs for high-resolution elevation data. The top industry in North Dakota is agriculture and related products, and the fastest growing sector is natural resources led by oil and gas extraction and mining, all of which contribute to the State’s economy (U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2024b). High-resolution elevation data can be utilized to improve flood risk management, emergency response, flood and drainage modeling, water quality monitoring, invasive species control, and transportation infrastructure design (Dewberry, 2012). 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.

The 3D Elevation Program (3DEP; refer to sidebar) is managed by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in partnership with Federal, State, Tribal, U.S. territorial, and local agencies to acquire consistent lidar coverage at quality level 2 or better (table 1) to meet the many needs of the Nation and North Dakota. The status of available and in-progress 3DEP baseline lidar data in North Dakota is shown in figure 1. 3DEP baseline lidar data include quality level 2 or better, 1-meter or better digital elevation models, and lidar point clouds, and must meet the Lidar Base Specification 2025 Rev. A (https://www.usgs.gov/3dep/lidarspec) or newer requirements . The National Enhanced Elevation Assessment (Dewberry, 2012) identified user requirements and conservatively estimated that availability of lidar data would result in at least $12.39 million in new benefits annually to the State. The top nine North Dakota business uses for 3D elevation data, which are based on the estimated annual conservative benefits of 3DEP, are shown in table 2.

Status of 3DEP in North Dakota

The North Dakota Department of Water Resources (NDDWR) has been involved with lidar activities since 2002, assuming a leadership role in data collection and dissemination for the State starting in 2013. Systematic statewide quality level 3 lidar collection began in 2008, driven by a need for flood-plain management along the Red River of the North, and was completed in 2016. The NDDWR pivoted to quality level 2 collection, completing acquisition in 2024, and quality level 1 collection is now underway for North Dakota’s 50 largest cities (NDDWR, 2025a). NDDWR’s primary partners in lidar acquisition are the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Natural Resources Conservation Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the USGS.

Agriculture and Precision Farming

In the agricultural sector, precision farming is a growing activity. Precision farming synthesizes data and models to maximize resources and minimize waste for the highest yield. The 2022 North Dakota Census of Agriculture showed that nearly 7,500 farms, from very small to very large, used precision farming practices (U.S. Department of Agriculture, National Agricultural Statistics Service, 2024a). Lidar underpins complex agricultural models involving nutrient and sediment runoff, areas of high erosion, and insolation levels, which are used in farm management activities such as drainage tile placement (Dewberry, 2022).

Flood Risk Management

Periodic major floods caused by snowmelt and ice jams occur on the Red, Souris, Missouri, James, and other rivers (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Weather Service, undated). The NDDWR (2025b) estimates funding flood control efforts to cost more than $300 million from 2025 through 2027. Lidar is critical to modeling and managing flood risk and is a component of FEMA’s Base Level Engineering, which provides advanced flood hazard models, particularly for areas where detailed modeling and maps have not been compiled (NDDWR, 2021).

After a 1997 catastrophic flood on the Red River, North Dakota and Minnesota partnered with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to create the Fargo-Moorhead Area Diversion Project, a multipart structure that, once completed in 2027, is intended to divert floodwaters away from the heavily populated areas of Fargo and West Fargo. Its construction was only possible with detailed, high-quality elevation data and surface-water modeling (Metro Flood Diversion Authority, 2024).

Geologic Resource Assessment and Hazard Mitigation

Landslides are a semifrequent hazard in North Dakota, particularly in river valleys having unstable subsoils. Lidar is essential for identifying and monitoring areas that are conducive to landslides, especially as many of these areas are not easy to identify from aerial photography alone (Maike and Moxness, 2022; fig. 2). Natural resource extraction is the largest part of the State’s economy by GDP (U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, 2026). North Dakota’s critical minerals assessment program uses lidar and aerial imagery to determine the depths of mineral beds that are not readily accessible through exploratory drilling (Moxness, 2024).