The Arkansas GIS Office is pleased to share that the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) has begun publishing data for the Eastern Arkansas LiDAR Project, which was collected in late 2023 and early 2024.

This project is divided into 10 Work Units, and LAZ and DEM data for Work Units 1–4 have now been released through both the USGS National Map and the USGS RockyWeb platform. 

• Green-shaded polygons represent Work Units that have completed quality control and are available for download. 

• Gray-shaded polygons represent Work Units that are still moving through the contractor and USGS quality control publication pipelines. 

A second LiDAR project covering western Arkansas — shown in orange — includes 40 counties covering 28,041 square miles and was collected during the winter of 2024–2025. Data delivery for the Western Project is currently estimated to begin in late 2026 or early 2027. 

To help users track progress and access downloads as they become available, the Arkansas GIS Office has published some online resources: 

• An ArcGIS Experience Builder app: https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/6b68787642854e0f80ddeecdab798d2b 

• A Tile Index service: https://gis.arkansas.gov/arcgis/rest/services/FEATURESERVICES/Elevation/MapServer/7 

• A Work Unit Boundaries service: https://gis.arkansas.gov/arcgis/rest/services/FEATURESERVICES/Elevation/MapServer/6 

Zoom in on any green-shaded Work Unit in the Experience Builder app to find the LAZ/DEM and LAZ_metadata/DEM_metadata tile fields, which provide download links for the zipped LiDAR Point Cloud (.laz) and the 0.5-meter-resolution Digital Elevation Model (.tif). 

The Arkansas GIS Office is also evaluating additional derivative products, such as 2-foot contours derived from the DEMs. This work is still in the early stages, and we’ll share more information as progress continues. 

We’re excited to help deliver these new datasets to the GIS community and look forward to seeing how they’ll support planning, analysis, and development across Arkansas. 

*Please note the ongoing federal government shutdown is delaying the USGS quality control and publication timelines for these projects and will negatively impact the delivery schedule.