JAXA's 30m global DSM from PRISM stereo imagery — a strong third opinion alongside SRTM and Copernicus DEM.
FABDEM
ActiveCopernicus DEM with forests and buildings stripped out — the bare-earth DEM flood and drainage models actually want.
by University of Bristol / Fathom
- Pricing
- Academic-only
- License
- CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 (non-commercial); commercial via FABDEM+ (Fathom)
- Commercial use
- Not permitted
- Ecosystem
- GDAL, Any GIS, Google Earth Engine
- Platform
- Windows, macOS, Linux
About FABDEM
FABDEM (Forest And Buildings removed DEM), from the University of Bristol and Fathom, takes Copernicus DEM GLO-30 and uses machine-learning height-correction to remove building and vegetation canopy bias — the single biggest source of error when a raw surface model gets fed into a flood or drainage model expecting bare-earth terrain.
For 2D hydraulic and floodplain modelling at global/national scale, FABDEM is frequently the best free option available, and it has become a common baseline in flood-model benchmarking literature. Free for non-commercial use (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0); commercial licensing is available as FABDEM+ through Fathom.
Where it fits in the workflow
TerrainCatchmentRainfallRunoffRoutingHydraulicsMappingReporting
Appears in collections
- Satellite Data for Hydrology & Water Engineering
The satellite and reanalysis datasets H&H engineers actually reach for — DEM to GRACE.
Alternatives to FABDEM
Ranked by the topics, categories and workflow stages they share with FABDEM.
ASTER GDEM
Gov-Public
A 30m global DEM reaching to 83° latitude — the go-to where SRTM/NASADEM have no coverage at all.
Browser tool for estimating point terrain elevations globally by address, coordinates, or map click.
Copernicus DEM (GLO-30 / GLO-90)
Gov-Public
ESA's TanDEM-X-derived global DEM — the most accurate free global surface model available today.
NASADEM
Gov-Public
SRTM reprocessed with modern algorithms and merged with ASTER/ICESat — a quiet accuracy upgrade, same footprint.
SRTM (Shuttle Radar Topography Mission)
Gov-Public
The original free global DEM — 30m/90m elevation from an 11-day shuttle radar mission, still a baseline today.