xMap data

Terrain and elevation

Terrain and elevation says how high each place sits and what the ground around it is like. For every place that reaches it, or each city or point you pick, it adds the height above sea level, the slope, which way the ground faces and whether the place sits above or below the land around it, in plain words: below sea level, low-lying, a hilltop, a valley floor, a steep slope or flat ground.

In the editor: The height above sea level of each place (Open-Meteo, from the Copernicus 90 m elevation model), its slope from the ground about 90 m around it, which way it faces, and how it sits against the land around it, in plain words: below sea level, low-lying, hilltop, valley floor, steep slope, raised or low ground, gentle slope or flat. For each incoming place it adds the fields; for cities, a point or the Area of interest it gives one row each. Useful for flood risk, sites, solar and logistics.

Settings

Where

Pick one

Automatic uses the places that reach the block when they have a position, otherwise the cities and areas of the Area of interest before it. Each incoming place measures every one (up to 200 a run). Cities and A point measure where you say.

Uses the places that reach this block when they have a location, otherwise the Area of interest before it. Pick Cities or A point to choose instead.

  • Automatic
  • Each incoming place
  • Area of interest
  • Cities
  • A point

Cities

A list you type

Any city name; {{city}} takes it from the item that reaches this block.

Pick from 51 choices.

Point (latitude, longitude)

Text

Compare with the land within

Pick one

How far around a place counts as the land around it. A place well above the average of the land within this distance is a hilltop; well below it, a valley floor. A small distance looks at the street, a large one at the district.

How far around a place counts as the land around it, to tell a hilltop, a valley floor or low ground.

  • 250 m
  • 500 m
  • 1 km
  • 2 km

What comes out

Each item that leaves the block carries these fields, to use in the blocks after it as {{field}}.

Each incoming place, with its ground

Each incoming place, or Automatic with places before it.

  • elevation_m: The height above sea level, in metres. Below zero means below sea level.
  • slope_pct, slope_deg: How steep the ground is, from the heights about 90 m to the north, east, south and west.
  • aspect: Which way the ground faces, or Flat under a 2% slope.
  • relative_height_m: How far above (or below, negative) the average of the land around it the place sits.
  • terrain: The ground in one word or two: Below sea level, Low-lying (5 m or less), Hilltop, Valley floor, Steep slope, Raised ground, Low ground, Gentle slope or Flat.
  • terrain_summary: All of it in one sentence, for an email or a report.

Each city, area or point, as an item

Cities, A point, or the Area of interest.

  • name, lat, lng, category: Where it was measured.
  • elevation_m ... terrain_summary: The same fields as above.

How to use it

Logistics

Warehouses on low ground before the rainy season

The sites that sit lowest in a flood-prone region, the lowest first, before the monsoon.

Energy

Flat ground near substations for solar farms

Substations with flat land around them, the flattest first, with a note on which to visit.

Insurance

Low-lying homes in a portfolio

An insurer in Miami prices flood cover by address.

Before: Flood risk was judged by postcode.

With the flow: Each home has its own height and the sea state near it, the lowest first.

Retail

Stores that sit in a dip

Water runs to low ground first: those stores hear about heavy rain before the others.

Telecoms

Hilltops for new masts

A mast on high ground covers more with less.

Logistics

Steep streets on delivery routes

Real estate

Homes with a view

A home well above its surroundings is likely to have a view, worth a line in the listing.

Agriculture

Fields that face the sun

In the southern hemisphere a north-facing slope gets more sun; in the north, a south-facing one.

Good to know

  • One credit for each place or location measured, at least the minimum a step charges. A place measured once is kept 30 days, so measuring it again in that time costs nothing.
  • The heights come from Open-Meteo, which serves the Copernicus 90 m digital elevation model (GLO-90) for the whole world. One height covers a square of about 90 m: the ground of a single building is not measured.
  • The slope is worked out from the heights about 90 m to the north, east, south and west of the place, so it describes the area around it, not a single street.
  • The model measures the surface as seen from above, buildings and trees included, smoothed over each 90 m square: in a dense city centre a low-lying street can read a few metres higher, with a slope where the buildings change height (Amsterdam reads about 5 m).
  • Low-lying ground is not a flood forecast: pair it with Floods and sea conditions or Weather forecast for what the water is doing.

Works well with

  • Floods and sea conditions: River floods and sea conditions for up to 7 days (Open-Meteo, from the European Copernicus services): the biggest river near each place with its flow against the same river’s past year (Normal, Above normal, High, Very high), and near a coast the waves, swell and sea temperature.
  • Weather forecast: The weather forecast (Open-Meteo, from national weather services) for up to 16 days: temperature, rain, wind and UV.
  • Nearby places: Places around a point from xMap’s own places database (300M+ places, refreshed every month): pick the types of place (more than 5,000, such as Restaurant, Cafe, Pharmacy, Hospital or Gas station, or a whole group of them) and how far to look.
  • My data: Brings in a table you uploaded or a list you saved on the My data page: your stores, customers, target accounts or sites.
  • Filter: Keeps only the items that match a rule.
  • Sort and limit: Puts the items in order, and can keep only the first ones: the 10 best rated, the 20 nearest, the highest fit scores.
  • xMap LLM: Tell the AI what to do in plain words.
  • Email: Sends one email per run with all the items, or one email per item.

Help articles

Try it

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