Solution for Uniquely Accurate Coastline Mapping
Airbus has expanded its WorldDEM portfolio with the launch of WorldDEM Ocean Shoreline, a homogeneous, gap-free and single-source vector product delineating the world’s ocean shorelines in a detailed, accurate and up to date manner.

Developed in cooperation with the Centre for Southeastern Tropical Advanced Remote Sensing (CSTARS) at the University of Miami in the United States, this new thematic layer provides highly detailed and accurate shoreline mapping of the Earth from pole to pole. Shoreline mapping is key for tsunami modelling, sea-level rise studies and coastal and littoral spatial planning, hazard mitigation and community preparedness.

Within the cooperation, Airbus produces a digital surface model, with water body features derived from radar imagery, while CSTARS’ expertise in oceanographic environments is used for additional vector specification by further detailing the shoreline where necessary in respect to any recent temporal changes (new ports, marinas, jetties, breakwaters, beach erosion or accretion, etc.) based on the latest available satellite imagery. The resulting database has a consistent and uniform horizontal resolution of 12 meters.

The WorldDEM product range is based on the global TanDEM-X DEM, as generated by the TanDEM-X mission, which is performed jointly with the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), which is responsible for the scientific exploitation of all TanDEM-X data, mission planning and execution, control of both satellites and processing of all satellite data. Airbus Defence and Space holds the exclusive commercial marketing rights for the data and is responsible for the adaptation of the elevation model to the needs of commercial users worldwide.