A crucial component in storm surge simulations is Digital Elevation Model (DEM) data. However, conventional DEM data is often coarse (30-meter resolution), suffers from poor sampling due to manual surveying techniques, and may be inaccurate since some digitized data is derived from hand-drawn contour maps. Advances in remote sensing, such as InterFerometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (IFSAR), yield potentially more accurate (2.5 meter horizontal, 2 meter vertical) DEM data. However, IFSAR does contain some noise and also elevated objects need to be removed to represent a true "bald earth" DEM. The development of a new DEM dataset for the Mississippi Gulf Coast, using optimal interpolation of USGS and IFSAR data, along with quality control for elevated objects, will be discussed.

This new DEM dataset, which naturally incorporates recent coastal development, will be used in a storm surge simulation of Hurricane Camille (1969). simulation will be presented at the conference. The MPI version of the Advanced CIRCulation (ADCIRC) model based on finite element methods, will be used for this simulation. The grid resolution used will reflect the SAR data resolution and the results of the simulation will be presented at the conference.