In 1999, GDM undertook one of its most aggressive projects ever - the development and implementation of a completely Commercial-Off-The-Shelf (COTS)-based solution for producing high-resolution, drainage enforced DEM's for the USGS. After months of production flowline development which included exhaustive quality review and testing, GDM is now producing DEM data that exceeds the minimum specification as required by the USGS. Upon completion of the flowline implementation and quality testing, GDM established a near perfect first-time acceptance record of 98%. Of 332 DEMs submitted at the completion of the product development phase, only minimal rework was required.

New Developments Aid Cost Control: The motivating factor for development of the COTS DEM flowline was to provide an alternative to proprietary production methods to USGS and other agencies that want to use high-resolution DEM data. GDM continuously works to provide large volume DEM production at lower overall pricing. GDM introduced a method of producing a single, large elevation matrix from which an entire study of DEMs can be extracted. This eliminates post process blending and edgematch and expedites overall DEM production. This production method can reduce the DEM cost to the user by as much as 40%.

Compliance with Performance Schedules: The most critical production component, in addition to developing a new process and prioritizing cost competitiveness, was assuring that large volumes of DEM's could be produced at an accelerated production cycle. The GDM DEM production group is tasked with producing a minimum of 250 DEM's per month. The USGS identified this quantity as a typical work-order size for high-resolution DEM production. GDM can offer an increase beyond this number if existing contour lines or sensor data can be provided. Current, DEM production tasks under the finalized flowline are ahead of schedule.