Local digital elevation model for the Ayeyarwady Delta in Myanmar (AD-DEM) derived from digitised spot and contour heights of topographic maps

The local digital elevation model (DEM) of the Ayeyarwady Delta, referred to as AD-DEM, was generated based on elevation data of topographic maps at scale of 1:50,000 published in 2014 while source data was compiled between 2000 and 2004. Empirical Bayesian Kriging with empirical data transformation and exponential modelling was applied to interpolate ~5100 elevation points (spot heights) and ~13600 elevation points extracted from contour data of the topographic maps. Elevation values higher than 10 m were excluded from interpolation and the SRTM water body mask created in 2000 was applied to the processed AD-DEM. The AD-DEM was transformed from its original vertical reference of local mean sea level at Kyaikkhami tide gauge to continuous mean sea level based on the mean dynamic topography data (CNES-CLS18 dataset of Mulet et al. (2021; https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-789-2021) that we transposed to EGM96) in order to account for sea level variations along the Myanmar coast.

The AD-DEM contains itself some uncertainty due to the lack of evenly distributed spot heights in areas of the upper delta, for which a separate shapefile is provided. However, we highlight to consider the AD-DEM as being the currently best available model against the background of the lacking possibility of ground truthing and being independent from satellite-based measurements.

For further information on data processing, including DEM interpolation, determination of local mean sea level and vertical datum conversions, as well as DEM performance, see the corresponding paper and supplementary material.

File name: ADDEM_Con250m_lesseq10_MDT_AD_MMR2000_masked_maskedSRTM.tif

File format: GEOTIFF file

Spatial reference: MMR2000_46N

Vertical reference: local continuous mean sea level, i.e., mean dynamic topography (CNES-CLS18 dataset of Mulet et al. (2021; https://doi.org/10.5194/os-17-789-2021) transposed to EGM96

Cell size: 750 × 750 m

File name: DataPoorAreas_MMR2000.shp

File format: ESRI Shapefile

Spatial reference: MMR2000_46N