The objective of this study is to develop a method to generate micro-relief digital elevation model (DEM) data of the tidal mudflats using multi-temporal Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) data. Field spectroscopy measurements showed that reflectance of the exposed mudflat, shallow turbid water, and normal coastal water varied by TM band wavelength. Two sets of DEM data of the inter-tidal mudflat area were generated by interpolating several waterlines extracted from multi-temporal TM data acquired at different sea levels. The waterline appearing in the near-infrared band was different from the one in the middle-infrared band. It was found that the waterline in TM band 4 image was the boundary between the shallow turbid water and normal coastal water and used as a second contour line having 50cm water depth in the study area. DEM data generated by using both TM bands 4 and 5 rendered more detailed topographic relief as compared to the one made by using TM band 5 alone.