About MapElevation — Sources, Purpose and Limitations

What this site does

MapElevation is an independent web project for exploring the elevation of places and understanding the data behind a map. You can search an address, enter coordinates, use your device location, or select a point on an interactive map. The site also provides US flood-zone tools and guides to help you find and interpret public source information.

We are not FEMA, an insurer, a government mapping authority, or a surveying practice. This site does not issue flood determinations, elevation certificates, insurance quotes, or emergency warnings. An address match identifies a possible location; it does not verify a property boundary or a building's surveyed elevation.

Where the information comes from

Our current global elevation estimates use Copernicus GLO-30 through Mapterhorn terrain tiles. The original grid spacing is approximately 30 metres. This is a digital surface model: buildings and vegetation can affect a reading. Its EGM2008 reference must not be assumed equivalent to a FEMA map's vertical datum.

Address searches use the US Census geocoder and Geoapify where available. We screen results for matching quality and show address candidates for you to confirm. A provider can still make mistakes: check the complete address and map position before using a result. A city, street or county location is not a building-level match.

US flood queries use FEMA's National Flood Hazard Layer. An empty response means that we have no mapped feature to show at that point. It is not evidence of no flood risk. Outside the supported US lookup area, consult the relevant national or local mapping authority.

Read our data sources and accuracy guide and limitations before making comparisons. Use FEMA's Map Service Center to verify official map information. Decisions about buildings, insurance, mortgages or safety need the appropriate official records and qualified professionals.

How we maintain the site

We describe source limitations alongside the tools and review reported errors against the available source information. Guide pages show their content update dates; those dates do not imply that an underlying government dataset was updated on the same day. We do not claim independent survey validation for every point returned by the terrain model.

Questions and corrections

Email hello@mapelevation.com to report a mapping problem, a misleading explanation, an accessibility issue, or a source correction. See our contact page for what to include. Please avoid sending confidential documents, exact home addresses, or other sensitive details when a general description is sufficient.

Our privacy policy explains the separate location-query and page-view reporting flows. Start with the elevation map, address elevation tool, or US flood-zone lookup.