Model winter sunlight and shadows on any Oregon property using Lidar

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About the data and the tools

Elevation and terrain data for anywhere in Oregon

Oregon Elevation Tools is a browser-based mapping tool that turns USGS 3DEP lidar elevation data for Oregon into contour lines, elevation profiles, slope and viewshed analysis, terrain statistics, property terrain reports and 3D-printable models — with no account, no software install and no GIS experience required.

Pan to a place, draw an area or a line on the map — or click a property to use its county taxlot boundary — then pick a tool. Results appear on the map and download in the format you need, or as a georeferenced aerial photo of the site for your GIS or CAD.

Selects the county assessor’s taxlot under the cursor and uses its boundary as the analysis area, so results are clipped to the actual property rather than a rectangle drawn by eye. Available in the counties that publish an open taxlot service.

Generates a multi-page PDF terrain report for a taxlot — hillshade, contours, slope and aspect breakdowns and elevation statistics — closing with a checklist of the official records the report does not cover (county assessor and planning records, FEMA flood maps, DOGAMI hazard maps, water rights, septic and wetlands records, and a preliminary title report), each linked to the agency that holds it.

Keeps up to five places in this browser and compares elevation, slope, winter sunlight and drainage. Export the shortlist as a JSON file.

Combines slope, facing direction, modeled winter sunlight, wetness and room for a building pad into one filter, with presets for house sites, solar, orchards and more; any matching patch can become the area for the next tool. Terrain criteria, not a zoning or buildability assessment — check with the county.

Generates topographic contours at any interval from 1 ft upward, rendered on the map and exportable as vectors.

Computes slope steepness and the compass direction each face points, including a full aspect distribution (share of land facing N/NE/E/… plus the flat share) — the terrain measure behind building permits, excavation, solar and pasture questions.

Models hours of direct sun across a site on any day of the year — the shortest day, an equinox or the longest day — with shadows cast by terrain up to 1.86 mi away and, where DOGAMI’s surface model exists, by trees and buildings. The default winter date is December 21. Shows when the sun first reaches the area and when it last leaves (Pacific time), and lets you step through the day half an hour at a time to watch the shadows move.

Summarizes minimum, maximum, mean and range of elevation across an area, plus its hypsometric (elevation frequency) distribution.

Estimates vertical cut and fill volumes to a level pad at a chosen elevation, or finds the elevation that balances the volumes. Excludes side slopes, soil swell and compaction.

Classifies terrain into ten landforms, including ridges, valleys, hollows and flats, using an adjustable neighborhood radius.

Estimates heights of buildings and vegetation above bare ground by comparing DOGAMI’s surface model with the 3DEP bare-earth model. Not ground elevation. Buildings and vegetation are combined; cells without usable surface data are left blank; mostly steep bare ground is flagged as unreliable.

Returns the ground elevation in feet at a single coordinate.

Two analyses on depression-filled terrain: drainage channels extracted as a Strahler-ordered stream network (exportable as GeoJSON/KML), and ponding — where water would stand once hollows fill, with depth, area and volume.

Maps topographic wetness potential from slope and contributing area. Shows relative terrain-driven moisture concentration, not measured soil moisture or flood depth.

Maps the upstream terrain draining to the clicked cell, with an adjustable search radius and a warning when the catchment reaches the loaded terrain edge or missing data.

Calculates which ground is in line of sight from an observer, within a radius of your choice: 0.5, 1, 2 and 5 miles. It allows for earth curvature and refraction, with a choice of eye height, target height, and whether trees and buildings from the surface model block the view — used for protecting a view, siting a house, and antenna or camera placement.

Checks whether one point is visible from another — a house site to a mountain, a deck to the ocean — and if not, where the view is first blocked and by how much, with the terrain profile and sightline drawn together.

Produces a cross-section along any line, with distance, total ascent and descent, and grade — for trails, roads, driveways, pipe runs and fence lines.

Measures the flat map length of a line tapped out corner by corner. For the climb and grade along a line, use Elevation Profile.

Explores a terrain route favoring gentler grades, enforcing a maximum grade and showing its elevation profile. Exports the route as GeoJSON and the profile as CSV. Does not assess legal access or construction feasibility.

Exports the selected area as contour vectors, a DEM raster, a georeferenced aerial photo or a 3D surface mesh.

Adds ground elevation from the USGS 3DEP model to the coordinates in a file you already have, replacing missing or noisy GPS altitude.

Every tool has a page explaining what it does, how the calculation works and where it can mislead: all tool explanations.

The primary source for every elevation on the site: a seamless bare-earth digital elevation model, 3.3 ft per pixel where lidar has been flown and 1/3 arc-second data, about 33 ft per pixel, elsewhere, read through this site’s own tile and export routes. The map tools read it as terrain tiles; downloads, contours, terrain statistics, the property data bundle and elevations added to uploaded files read it directly. Elevations are above NAVD 88. Public domain.

The ground plus buildings and vegetation, from the statewide surface-model mosaic of the Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries. Used where a tool needs what stands on the ground: object heights, shadows from trees and buildings in Sunlight, and viewsheds blocked by buildings and forest. The mosaic is still being completed, so these tools fall back to bare earth where it is empty.

Shows which lidar project covers each place, with the details DOGAMI publishes for it. From the 3DEP index, every download states what share of its area fell outside the lidar work units and came from the coarser seamless model.

Parcel boundaries for the Property tool come from the county assessor’s GIS taxlots in the counties with an open service (Metro RLIS for Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas, the Lane Geographic Data Consortium for Lane, and the other county services the site lists); where no county service is available the tool says so. Taxlots are assessment maps, not surveys. County boundaries and the statewide address locator used by search come from the Oregon GEO framework.

Place names for search: towns, peaks, lakes, streams and other named features in Oregon.

The basemaps you can switch between: USGS Topo from The National Map (place names, trails and roads), shaded relief rendered from 3DEP, and aerial imagery from Esri World Imagery (Imagery: Esri, Maxar, Earthstar Geographics, and the GIS User Community). Backdrop only; no measurement is taken from them.

Accuracy is inherited from the USGS 3DEP source and the lidar project behind it, not asserted by this tool. Where lidar exists, at 3.3 ft per pixel, vertical accuracy is that of the project: individual Oregon Lidar Consortium projects report vendor RMSE of a few inches or less in DOGAMI’s project records; for example, Metro 2014 reports about a tenth of a foot. Outside the lidar work units the seamless DEM is about 33 ft per pixel and far coarser. Every download states what share of its area fell outside the lidar work units. Values are bare-earth elevations above NAVD 88 from a digital elevation model — they exclude buildings and tree canopy and are not a substitute for a surveyed elevation where a legal or engineering decision depends on it.

USGS 3DEP elevation data and USGS maps are U.S. Government works in the public domain: you may use the results, including commercially. A credit to the USGS 3D Elevation Program is appreciated, and every file you download carries it. DOGAMI lidar products are published by the State of Oregon; credit "DOGAMI / Oregon Lidar Consortium". County taxlot boundaries are the assessor's GIS data, not surveys, and each county publishes its own disclaimer, shown with the parcel. The aerial basemap is from Esri and follows Esri's terms; it is not included in downloads.