Sanibel, FL Elevation & Topographic Map
Elevation
29 ft 9 m20 ft 6 m16 ft 5 m8 ft 2 m0 ft 0 m−4 ft −1 m
Contours every 100 ft, bold every 500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
How to use this mapviews, tools and data
- Elevation
- Ground colored by height from green (lowest) to white (highest), with contour lines every 40–500 ft (USGS data).
- Satellite
- A 2016 satellite photo at 33 ft (10 m) detail; contours off.
- 3D
- Tilt and turn the terrain; hills are raised 1.5×, or set ×1 for true height.
- Click or tap anywhere
- The exact elevation of that spot in ft and m.
- Measure
- Pick two points for the climb, descent and grade along a straight line.
- City area
- Fades everything outside the official city limits (US Census).
Elevation Data
Sanibel sits at about 3 ft (1 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.
Typical elevation
3 ft 1 m
most residents: 1–5 ft
Lowest
−4 ft −1 m
on the west side
Highest
12 ft 4 m
on the west side
Average
2 ft 1 m
all land inside city limits
Sanibel is nearly flat: its ground varies by only about 16 ft, so the figures below sit close together.
13% of Sanibel's land lies below the average daily high tide (MHHW, NOAA), and 66% lies less than 3 ft above it. Check flood zones on FEMA's map
| Figure | Elevation |
|---|---|
| Typical Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower | 3 ft1 m |
| Highest point Inside city limits, on the west side | 12 ft4 m |
| Lowest point Inside city limits, on the west side | −4 ft−1 m |
| Town center USGS map point for Sanibel | 4 ft1 m |
| Average of all land | 2 ft1 m |
Topographic Map
- Location
- City in Lee County, Florida, United States
- Population
- 6,358 2024 est.
- Land area
- 16.2 sq mi + 17.0 sq mi water
- Density
- 393 per sq mi
- Coordinates
- 26.4490° N, 82.0223° W
- Time zone
- Eastern UTC−5 / −4
- Drains to
- Gulf of America
- ZIP codes 1
- 33957
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Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS
Nearby Places
Nearby towns by typical elevation
- Villas10 ft
- Cape Coral8 ft
- McGregor7 ft
- Cypress Lake6 ft
- Iona6 ft
- Harlem Heights5 ft
- Captiva4 ft
- St. James City3 ft
- Sanibel3 ft
- Fort Myers Beach2 ft
- Punta Rassa2 ft
Rankings by typical elevation
- Towns in Florida941st highest of 958
- Towns in Lee County35th highest of 39
Peaks and hills nearest, by height
- Howard Mound12 ft
- Faulkner Mound10 ft
How we measure
- Typical elevation: the population-weighted median: every 2020 Census block inside the city limits, at its USGS 3DEP height, weighted by the people who live there. Half of residents live higher, half lower.
- Lowest, highest, average: USGS 3DEP bare-earth heights on a 1 arc-second (≈100 ft, 30 m) grid, land only, inside the Census city limits (TIGER, Jan 1 2026).
- Nearby Places: nearby towns and rankings use each town's typical elevation, so every town is compared like for like. Rankings count every city, town, township and census-designated place, including places inside a town. Peaks and hills: the nearest summits with at least 980 ft (300 m) of prominence within 62 mi (100 km), then federal (GNIS) summits within 16 mi (25 km) when there are fewer than 5; each is the 3DEP top on a ~7 ft (2 m) window, or the NGS published height when a usable survey mark sits within 160 ft (50 m) of it (shown as published).
- Rounding: computed heights are rounded to 10 ft (5 m), or to 1 ft (1 m) under 100 ft; 3DEP is good to about a meter, not a foot. Published figures (FAA airport elevation, NGS survey heights) are shown as their publisher gives them.
- Datum: North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88). NGS plans to replace NAVD 88 with a new datum (NAPGD2022); heights will then shift slightly.
- Sources: USGS 3DEP, GNIS and Watershed Boundary Dataset; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); BTS time zones; NOAA tidal surfaces (MHHW). All public domain.