Digital elevation models (DEMs) are increasingly employed for orthoimagery production, hydrological modeling, view-shed determination, slope/aspect analyses, and three-dimensional surface visualization. DEMs in common use range from relatively coarse three-arc-second (90-meter profile) DTEDs to 30-meter profile Level 2 DEMs produced by the U.S. Geological Survey. Yet these data sets may not capture sufficient surface detail to meet the requirements of many applications. Experiments in Texas involving a variety of terrain types demonstrate the effectiveness of higher resolution DEMs, especially 10-meter profile data sets, in the creation of more geomorphologically accurate surface representations.