French Elevation Models

Coverage Map for Mainland French Elevation models in WindPRO - 5m, 25m & 75m model coverage with green color - other colors are higher resolution regional datasets. Black markes show turbine locations from WindPRO online databases (see here.)

Wind Farm at Issoire - showing 5m and 75m grids in inner and outer regions. Credits: Contains elevation data from the Institut National de l’Information Geographique et Forestiére (IGN) – 05/2019 - and elevation data from the Centre Régional Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes de l'Information Géographique (CRAIG) – 05/2019.

French National Elevation Model - 75m grid. Image showing metropolitan France. Credits: Contains elevation data from the Institut National de l’Information Geographique et Forestiére (IGN) – 05/2019

French National Elevation Model - 75m grid. Image showing part of Bretagne. Credits: Contains elevation data from the Institut National de l’Information Geographique et Forestiére (IGN) – 05/2019

Missing tile areas (red color) for the 5m "France MNT: IGN RGE ALTI® V2.0 – 5m - Metropolitan and Corsica" - see more details in section "Usage Notes".

Introduction

Late March 2021, the French digital terrain models (DTM's) have been updated with 5m and 25m resolution data covering France and its overseas territories: These DTM’s (MNT - Modèle Numérique de Terrain) are available with windPRO – three covering the whole of France in 5m, 25m and 75m grid resolution – and others from 3 selected administrative regions in high resolution: 5m grid or 10m grid resolutions. Elevation models from the French overseas territories are also available in 5m and 25m grid resolutions, see the table below. These French DTM datasets are freely available for windPRO users with an active subscription.

Dataset Overview

• Spatial Coverage:
  • Mainland France and Corsica (5m, 25m, 75m),
  • 3 regions: Auvergne-Rhône-Alpe, Bretagne, Nord-Pas de Calais (5m and 10m)
  • Overseas territories (5m, 25m)
• Resolution: Area-dependent: 5m, 10m, 25m, 75m (see table below)
• Data-type: Digital Terrain Model (DTM)
• Coordinate systems: Varies (see table below)
• Version: Data downloaded in spring 2019 and spring 2021.
• Vertical Accuracy: N/A

DTM datasets details for France and its overseas territories.

Id	Coverage area	Dataset name(s) in windPRO	Grid resolution	Vertical reference	Horizontal system (EPSG)
1	France Mainland and Corsica	France MNT: IGN RGE ALTI® V2.0 – 5m - Metropolitan and Corsica France MNT: IGN BD ALTI® V2.0 – 25m - Metropolitan and Corsica France MNT: IGN BD ALTI® V2.0 – 75m - Metropolitan and Corsica	5m 25m 75m	France: IGN69, tide gauge Marseille Corsica: IGN78, tide gauge Ajaccio	2154 (Lambert-93)
2	Mayotte Overseas Département	France MNT: IGN RGE ALTI® V2.0 – 5m - Mayotte France MNT: IGN BD ALTI® V2.0 – 25m - Mayotte	5m 25m	REUN89	4471 (UTM38S)
3	Réunion Overseas Département	France MNT: IGN RGE ALTI® V2.0 – 5m - Réunion France MNT: IGN BD ALTI® V2.0 – 25m - Réunion	5m 25m	MAYO53	2975 (UTM40S)
4	Saint Pierre and Miquelon	France MNT: IGN RGE ALTI® V2.0 – 5m - Saint Pierre and Miquelon France MNT: IGN BD ALTI® V2.0 – 25m - Saint Pierre and Miquelon	5m 25m	STPM50	4467 (UTM21N)
4	Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Barthélemy & Saint-Martin	France MNT: IGN RGE ALTI® V2.0 – 5m - Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Barthélemy & Saint-Martin France MNT: IGN BD ALTI® V2.0 – 25m - Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint-Barthélemy & Saint-Martin	5m 25m	Guadeloupe: GUAD88 Martinique: MART87 Saint-Barthélemy: GUAD88SB Saint-Martin: GUAD88SM	32620 (UTM20)
5	French Guiana	France MNT: IGN RGE ALTI® V2.0 – 5m - French Guiana France MNT: IGN BD ALTI® V2.0 – 25m - French Guiana	5m 25m		2972
6	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes	Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes DTM/MNT Model	5m	IGN69, tide gauge Marseille	2154 (Lambert-93)
7	Bretagne	Bretagne DTM/MNT Model	5m	IGN69, tide gauge Marseille	2154 (Lambert-93)
8	Nord-Pas de Calais	Nord-Pas de Calais DTM/MNT Model	10m	IGN69, tide gauge Marseille	2154 (Lambert-93)

The above IGN models are versions of the national elevation models of France (RGE Alti and BD Alti). These models are released from the Institut National de l’Information Geographique et Forestiére (IGN). Higher resolution models (1m) are available from IGN. Additional dataset documentation is available in the product-descriptions from IGN:

• RGE Alti - here (pdf-document, in French).
• BD Alti - here (pdf-document, in French).

Usage Notes and Known-Issues

• High-resolution: Please consider that the 5m or 10m grid data are at a quite high resolution - so processing and downloading large areas may be slow. We recommend that you use highest resolution data in a limited area around the site (say with a boundary of a few kilometres), then merge your elevation model with coarser resolution data. This is done very easily in the 'elevation grid object'.
• Versions: Data in windPRO were accessed, downloaded and adapted for windPRO distribution during spring 2019 with a significant update in spring 2021.
• Models:
  • Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes DTM/MNT Model – 5m: Elevation from five departments are available: Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal, Loire, Haute-Loire and Allier. Data is from 2016.
  • Bretagne DTM/MNT Model: 5m resolution – with data obtained in the following years: Morbihan (2016), lle et Vilaine (2017), Côtes d'Armor (2015), Finistère (2015).
  • Nord-Pas de Calais DTM/MNT Model: 10m resolution. Model was derived from stereo-imagery during years 2012-2013.
• Post-processing: For the overseas territories, elevations below -0.99m have been set to void.
• Known-issue: "France MNT: IGN RGE ALTI(R) Version 2.0 – 5m - Metropolitan and Corsica", a few areas are missing within departements "56: Morbihan", "57: Moselle", "67: Bas-Rhin" and "88 Vosges". If you are working within these areas, please patch the data using the 25m dataset instead. The missing data is by design of the "RGE ALTI® V2.0" specification from 2015, where areas not covered by high-resolution data are not supplemented by the "BD ALTI® 25m". IGN updates the data with new acquisitions several times a year but does not have any information on when these missing areas will be available (information from February 2021). See image below for location of the areas (shown with red circles).
• Known-issue: If you are working in countries that are neighbor-states to France, then you might see the French datasets in the list of available elevation data. If your project is far away from the border, you might not recieve any elevation-data from the French elevation dataset (as the raster-dataset hold empty elevation values for the location). This issue is caused by limitations in our data coverage check within windPRO online services.

Availability from within windPRO

The data are available directly from within windPRO and may be accessed from the online-services from the following objects:

• Line Object (with purpose to height contour lines)
• Elevation Grid Object

Please note that for the 5-meter grid data - the downloaded area is limited to 20 km x 20 km to keep the files at a usable size. The data within the elevation object may be extended with coarser data if a bigger area is needed.

Attributions

These products belong to the open data of France. Please use the following attributions when using one of the datasets:

• French IGN DTM/MNT Models – 5m, 25m, 75m: Contains elevation data from the Institut National de l’Information Geographique et Forestiére (IGN) – 05/2019 & 03/2021. Distribution through EMD and windPRO.
• France - Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes DTM/MNT Model – 5m: Contains elevation data from the Centre Régional Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes de l'Information Géographique (CRAIG) – 05/2019. Distribution through EMD and windPRO.
• France - Bretagne DTM/MNT Model – 5m: Contains elevation data from GéoBretagne – 05/2019. Distribution through EMD and windPRO.
• France – Nord-Pas de Calais – 10m: Contains elevation data from the Plateforme Publique de l'Information Géographique de la Région Nord - Pas de Calais (PPIGE) – 05/2019. Distribution through EMD and windPRO.

Acknowledgements

• The French public, state (with IGN as its representative) and regions of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Bretagne and Nord-Pas de Calais are thanked for producing these digital elevation datasets and disseminating them with an open-data licence - and thus aiding the development of renewable energy – and wind energy in particular.
• Integration of this dataset into EMD services was co-supported through the InnoWind project (www.innowind.dk) which is co-funded by the Danish Innovation Fund

License

Unless otherwise stated, these data have been released under the French License Ouverte / Open License – a license used for open data from the State of France. The license is designed to be compatible with Creative Commons Licenses, Open Government License (UK) and the Open Data Commons Attribution License read pdf here. It is required that the source of information is mentioned when using these data – see above.

External Links

• Institut National de l’Information Geographique et Forestiére (IGN): http://professionnels.ign.fr
• Centre Régional Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes de l'Information Géographique (CRAIG): https://www.craig.fr/
• Le partenariat GéoBretagne: https://cms.geobretagne.fr
• Equipe PPIGE Plateforme Publique de l'Information Géographique - Nord-Pas de Calais: https://www.ppige-npdc.fr/portail/geocatalogue