Urbandale, IA Elevation & Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Urbandale, Iowa, shaded from 800 ft on the north side to 1,030 ft on the west side
Elevation
1,030 ft 315 m970 ft 295 m940 ft 285 m890 ft 270 m830 ft 250 m800 ft 245 m
Contours every 100 ft, bold every 500 ft
USGS 3DEP · U.S. Census Bureau
⤓ Download this map
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

Urbandale sits at about 940 ft (290 m) above sea level, worked out from 2020 Census block heights on USGS 3DEP, weighted by residents.

Typical elevation
940 ft 290 m
most residents: 890–980 ft
Lowest
800 ft 245 m
on the north side
Highest
1,030 ft 315 m
on the west side
Average
950 ft 290 m
all land inside city limits

Urbandale spans about 230 ft of height, so no single spot tells the whole story. The ruler shows where its people live, and where the other numbers you'll see come from.

FigureElevation
Typical
Where people live: half of residents higher, half lower
940 ft290 m
Highest point
Inside city limits, on the west side
1,030 ft315 m
Lowest point
Inside city limits, on the north side
800 ft245 m
Town center
USGS map point for Urbandale
940 ft290 m
Airport (DSM)
FAA airport elevation, the highest point of its runways, 6.0 mi south of the city limits
958 ft292 m
Average of all land950 ft290 m

Elevation profile, south to north

3.0 mi south to north through the town center.

Topographic Map

Topographic elevation map of Urbandale, Iowa, shaded from 800 ft on the north side to 1,030 ft on the west side
City limits (dashed) over shaded terrain, with contours every 20 ft (6 m).
Location
City in Polk and Dallas counties, Iowa, United States
Population
47,759 2024 est.
Land area
22.7 sq mi
Density
2,103 per sq mi
Coordinates
41.6267° N, 93.7122° W
Time zone
Central UTC−6 / −5
Landform region
Central Lowland
Drains to
Des Moines River → Mississippi River → Gulf of America
Airport
Des Moines International (DSM) 958 ft
ZIP codes 5
50111 50131 50263 50322 50323
⤓ Download this map

WebP, 1200 × 900. Free to use: credit “ElevationOf.com” with a link to this page.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, USGS, FAA

Nearby Places

Nearby towns by typical elevation

  1. Waukee1,030 ft
  2. Ankeny950 ft
  3. Grimes950 ft
  4. Urbandale940 ft
  5. West Des Moines940 ft
  6. Clive930 ft
  7. Polk City930 ft
  8. Saylorville910 ft
  9. Johnston900 ft
  10. Des Moines890 ft
  11. Windsor Heights880 ft

Rankings by typical elevation

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, Watershed Boundary Dataset and physiographic provinces; U.S. Census Bureau (boundaries, 2020 blocks, 2024 population estimates, Gazetteer areas, ZIP code areas); FAA airport data; BTS time zones. All public domain.