In a visual world an image is easily recognizable to viewers when compared to a monochrome point cloud and can be one of the biggest challenges when a new person attempts to interpret LIDAR data sets for the first time. The LAS format (v1.2 and later) supports the storage of point color values directly within…
In order to minimize the amount of effort required for performing quality control on data it is best to run macro-level quality control checks to quickly assess whether to invest the labor in micro-level quality assessments. Hillshade images can be used as part of a quick quality control analysis by providing an overview perspective on…
I often find myself running point statistics in LP360 (either LP360 for ArcGIS or the standalone LP360) using the stamp Point Cloud Task tools. This allows me to take multiple samples across the project for point density testing or classification counts. I realized that it is not obvious that you can append to a shape…
Unfortunately, much LIDAR data has been delivered in text format (American Standard Code for Information Interchange, ASCII) rather than the rich binary LAS format. Many agencies now have disk drives of LIDAR, in ASCII format, on the shelf that accompanied more familiar LIDAR-derived products such as gridded Digital Elevation Models (DEMs) and digital contour files.…
LIDAR datasets are large and require extensive quality control and quality assurance procedures to ensure desired accuracies and product results. Statistics play an important role in evaluating LIDAR data in an efficient manner during such this QA/QC process. Statistics can be calculated for the LIDAR project dataset as a whole, for each file in the…
Pierce County, Washington has used LIDAR data since 2004 as a mission critical component of the County’s Geographic Information System (GIS). The data, collected from 2000 to 2004, has been used for a variety of purposes, including economic development, environmental planning, construction and transportation projects, and emergency management. However, this data was collected with older…
This technical note provides recommended flight planning procedures and suggestions for contractual data deliverables for organizations that are subcontracting field data collection for a LIDAR project to a service provider. It is intended to provide a common basis for project planning when working with subcontractors, as well as recommendations for setting-up calibration flights for those…
