The "Impossible" Map: USGS Completes Its Billion-Dollar Lidar Moonshot

DENVER — In a packed auditorium at Geo Week 2026, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) dropped the mic on a two-decade-long moonshot: the completion of the 3D Elevation Program (3DEP) baseline.

For the uninitiated, this isn’t just another government data release. It is the finish line of a massive, $1 billion collaborative effort to map the entire United States with high-resolution lidar (and IfSAR in Alaska). It is the first consistent, national baseline of 3D elevation data ever created—a digital twin of the nation’s topography that is already reshaping everything from flood modeling to infrastructure planning.

“The final task order and the final collection for the 3DEP baseline is going to be done this year,” announced Dr. Mike Tischler, Director of the National Geospatial Program, to a room that erupted in applause. “It is a story about good government, about technology advancements, about people, and about partnerships.”

The "Impossible" Map

To understand the gravity of the announcement, you have to rewind to the program’s inception. Ten years ago, the idea of flying lidar over every inch of the United States was viewed by many as a bureaucratic fantasy.

“We sat in rooms and people told us it couldn't be done,” Tischler recalled. “When we estimated that it was going to be 10 years and a billion dollars, people looked at me like we were crazy. ‘Where are you going to find that money? Congress isn't going to give you a billion-dollar check.’”

They didn’t. Instead, the USGS built what former Associate Director Kevin Gallagher described as a “coalition of the willing.” Lacking a singular massive appropriation, the agency essentially crowdsourced the funding through partnerships. They knocked on doors—federal, state, local, and tribal—pitching a value proposition that was hard to ignore: for every dollar a partner invested, they could bring four to five partner dollars to match.

“It is a $1 billion program with nearly 400 partners... that have come from just about every level of government,” Tischler noted. “That is exceptional. And in reality, that's probably the only way we could have made this work.”

From Powell to Point Clouds

The session served as a victory lap for the “greybeards” of the geospatial world, bringing retired leaders back to the stage to reflect on the shift from manual surveys to laser pulses.

USGS Director Dr. Ned Mamula, appearing via video, drew a direct line from the legendary 19th-century explorations of John Wesley Powell to today’s digital age. “Topographic mapping has had a long and glorious history at USGS,” Mamula said. “Today, our mapping efforts ride smoothly and rapidly on the latest and best technology... from the use of aerial photography to orbital platforms... to using lidar and artificial intelligence.”

Dr. Jason Stoker, a former USGS leader pivotal to the program’s technical foundation, highlighted just how fast the science has moved. He recalled the early days when getting a single county of lidar data was a massive lift.

“In 2003... we thought, ‘Wouldn't it be great if we had lidar for the entire country?’” Stoker said. “It took a lot of leadership to actually turn this concept into something that we can work on.”

The "Easy Button" That Wasn't

Kimberly Mantey, Director of the National Geospatial Technical Operations Center (NGTOC), joked about her role in creating the "easy button" for data delivery—a task that was anything but easy. The sheer volume of data 3DEP generates is staggering, and making it accessible to the public required a complete overhaul of how the government handles big data.

“If hardware was the first technical hurdle to overcome... software was the second, and maybe the bigger one,” Mantey said. “We were all actively learning the realities of working with big data. Lidar isn't just data; it's big data.”

What Comes Next?

While the mood was celebratory, the message was clear: the baseline is just the beginning. The USGS is already pivoting to the 3D National Topography Model (3DNTM), the next-generation program that aims to integrate elevation with hydrography (water) data.

The focus is shifting from "mapping it once" to "monitoring it constantly."

“We are certainly not done,” Tischler said. “There becomes even more value when you're able to measure change against [the baseline]. And that's where we're going to be going over the next 10 years.”

For an industry that lives and dies by the quality of its base maps, the completion of 3DEP is a watershed moment. It proves that with the right mix of stubborn optimism and creative financing, the government can still do big, hard things.

As Kevin Gallagher put it, summing up the sentiment of the room: “What's the next fire that we're going to light? We need a community answer to that.”