Property terrain report for any Wisconsin parcel or area

Who uses this

• Buyers of rural acreage. Compare the terrain on every parcel on the shortlist before paying for inspections on one.
• Architects and designers. Get the ground shape, slope classes and aspect at the start of a project.
• Real estate agents and sellers. Answer the slope and drainage questions buyers ask.

When to use it

• You want something to send to a client, a builder or a family member rather than a screen.
• You are shortlisting rural acreage and want the same terrain summary for each parcel.
• You need a record of what the ground looked like when the lidar was flown.

Tools for your job

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

How to use it

1. Open Property Report and click inside the parcel, or search its address first. To report on part of a parcel, several parcels or land the parcel map misses, draw a box or polygon or upload a boundary instead.
2. Wait for the preview. Larger parcels take longer because more terrain is loaded.
3. Choose Download report for the PDF, or the data bundle, a ZIP with the elevation model as a GeoTIFF, the contours as GeoJSON, DXF, Shapefile and KML, a 3D terrain model as STL, the property boundary as GeoJSON and KML, and a README.

Step by step: a Madison parcel

We build the full terrain report for the same Madison parcel.

1.Open Property Report and click inside the parcel, or search its address. The panel confirms the parcel and its area before anything is built.

2.Build report (PDF) draws the maps in your browser and has this site’s server assemble the PDF. The cover shows the parcel and four key figures: area, elevation range, mean slope and winter sun.

3.The slope page gives the mean slope and the share of the parcel in each slope class.

4.The winter sun page maps hours of direct sun on December 21 across the parcel, with the times of first and last sun.

What it showed

• Page 2 sums the report up in a few findings. The other pages cover contours, aspect, drainage, hillshade and elevation statistics, and the report closes with the county, state and federal records it does not replace, and where to check each one.
• The data bundle (ZIP) gives you the underlying files for GIS and CAD: the elevation model as a GeoTIFF, the contours as GeoJSON, DXF, Shapefile and KML, a 3D terrain model as STL, the property boundary as GeoJSON and KML, and a README.

How it works

The parcel boundary is fetched from the statewide service (or your drawn or uploaded area is used as the boundary) and the USGS 3DEP elevation model is loaded for its extent. Contours, slope, aspect and elevation statistics are computed on that terrain and clipped to the boundary.

The maps are drawn in your browser and sent to this site’s server, which assembles the pages into a PDF, with the data sources named on the attribution page.

The closing checklist lists the records a terrain report cannot stand in for: local assessment, planning and zoning records, FEMA flood maps, state geology, well records, septic, wetlands and title records. The report links only to verified public pages; an agency can be named without a link.

Reading the results

Slope classes are given as shares of the parcel. Read the distribution alongside the map: a parcel average can conceal a steep access route or a narrow bench. The bands do not establish buildability, permit requirements or soil stability.

Aspect is where each face points. In Wisconsin, south-facing ground gets the most winter sun.

Elevations are in feet above NAVD 88, the national vertical datum, which is close to mean sea level.

Limits and caveats

• A terrain report is not a survey, a geotechnical report or a planning review. It shows the ground shape on the date the lidar was flown.
• Outside the finest lidar work units, 3DEP can use older lidar at about 9.8 ft per pixel or a coarser model at about 33 ft per pixel. Fine output spacing cannot recover missing source detail. Lidar coverage and source dates vary across Wisconsin. Check your site against the USGS 3DEP work-unit index; an unavailable lookup means coverage is unknown.
• Parcels and drawn areas larger than the area limit are refused. Draw a smaller area instead.
• A drawn area is not a property record: the report names the county at its center and does not follow any parcel line.

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, with older lidar at about 9.8 ft per pixel and coarser sources at about 33 ft per pixel elsewhere, with elevations above NAVD 88. The optional surface model is limited to Brown County. Outside usable regional data, Sunlight, Viewshed and Sightline fall back to bare earth; Object Heights needs usable surface data. Surface and ground source dates can differ.

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. Wisconsin parcel boundaries are aggregated local-government data, not legal surveys; the parcel disclaimer accompanies the selection. Brown County surface data is credited separately when used. The Esri aerial basemap follows Esri’s terms and is display-only; downloadable aerial photos use USGS NAIP.

Questions

Related

Related tools

• Property — Selects the parcel under your click from the statewide parcel map and uses its boundary as the analysis area for every other tool.
• Saved Properties — Keeps up to 5 places in your browser and compares their elevation, slope, winter sunlight and drainage side by side.
• Slope & Aspect — Maps how steep every part of your area is and which compass direction each face points, with a full breakdown of slope classes and aspect shares.
• Sunlight — Models hours of direct sun across a site on any day of the year, with shadows from terrain up to 1.86 mi away and, where Brown County’s regional surface model has usable data, from trees and buildings.

Guides

• Terrain Checks Before Buying Rural Land in Wisconsin
• Slope Maps for a Building Permit on Sloping Land