North Carolina Elevation ToolsOpen Terrain Stats on the map →

Terrain · Select a property, draw a box or polygon, or upload a boundary

Elevation statistics for any North Carolina property

Find the elevation of your property: the highest and lowest ground, the mean and the range, in feet, measured over every cell of the parcel from the USGS 3DEP lidar elevation model. A chart shows how much of the land sits at each elevation.

Handy for flood, frost and planting questions, and for knowing how far above sea level a house site really is.

Free to run · pay to download

Free to run, and free to save as a PNG image of the map. This tool has no file export of its own. For the terrain as a file, Download Data exports contours, a GeoTIFF or a 3D mesh with a pass: US$29 for 24 hours, US$99 for 30 days or US$399 for 12 months.

Open Terrain Stats on the map →Pass prices and what’s included

Who uses this

  • Owners and buyers. Know how high the property sits, for flood and frost questions.
  • Growers and vineyard managers. Find the frost-prone low ground and the elevation band of a block.

When to use it

  • You want the highest and lowest points on a property, or the elevation of a house site.
  • You need the elevation range for a flood, frost or planting question.
  • You want the ground elevation, not the height of what is standing on it.

Tools for your job

Terrain Stats is one step in a bigger question. These are the jobs it helps with, and the tools that go with it.

For the job: Plans, CAD, GIS and 3D printing

I need the terrain as a file.

  1. 1.Download Data — Contours, a GeoTIFF elevation model, a georeferenced aerial photo or a 3D mesh for printing.
  2. 2.Contour Lines — Contours previewed on the map before you export them.
  3. 3.Elevate a File — Adds ground elevation to your own GPX, KML, GeoJSON or CSV points.
  4. 4.Add Elevation — A single spot elevation, for a floor level or a tank.
  5. 5.Terrain Stats (this tool) — The highest, lowest and mean ground elevation of an area, and how the land is spread between them.

How to use it

  1. Select a property, draw an area or upload a boundary.
  2. Run. The panel lists the statistics and draws the elevation distribution.

Step by step: Grandfather Mountain

We summarize the ground elevation across Grandfather Mountain’s flank.

1.Zoom to the area or select a property, then choose Compute statistics.

2.The panel lists the area, the lowest and highest points, the elevation range, the mean elevation and the mean slope.

What it showed

  • Elevations are in feet above NAVD 88: bare ground, not roofs or tree tops.
Try it yourself on Grandfather Mountain →

How it works

Every cell of the USGS 3DEP bare-earth model inside the area is read, and the statistics are taken over those cells. The distribution chart, called a hypsometric curve, bins the cells by elevation so you can see whether the land is mostly high, mostly low or evenly spread.

Reading the results

Elevations are feet above NAVD 88, which is close to mean sea level.

A long, flat distribution means a steady slope; a tall spike means mostly flat ground at one elevation.

Limits and caveats

  • Areas up to 3.7 miles per side.
  • Where lidar has not been flown, the USGS 3DEP model falls back to its 1/3 arc-second layer, about 33 ft per pixel, and downloads state what share of the area came from it. That coarser model is not fit for site-scale decisions. USGS 3DEP serves lidar-derived elevation across North Carolina: 3.3 ft per pixel where a full-resolution lidar survey exists, about 9.8 ft per pixel where the model is built from older lidar. The fallback is rare.
  • Bare ground only: buildings and trees are not included.

Data and attribution

Results come from the USGS 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) bare-earth elevation model: lidar at 3.3 ft per pixel where it has been flown, and the 1/3 arc-second model, about 33 ft per pixel, elsewhere, with elevations above NAVD 88. Every tool is bare earth: trees and buildings are not in the elevation model for North Carolina, so Sunlight, Viewshed and Sightline work from the terrain alone.

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. County parcel boundaries are the assessor's GIS data compiled by NC OneMap, not surveys, and the county that published each parcel is named with it. The aerial basemap is from Esri and follows Esri's terms; it is not included in downloads.

Questions

Is the elevation above sea level?

It is feet above NAVD 88, the national vertical datum, which is close to mean sea level. For design elevations, check against a survey benchmark.

Ready to try it?

Open Terrain Stats on the map →

Free to use, no account. The analysis runs in your browser on public-domain USGS 3DEP data. Downloading the results needs a pass: see pricing.