LiDAR Tools, Applications and

Experiences
Overview
October 2006 GRF LiDAR Data Collect
Data Issues .
LiDAR tools, products and application areas
Recent GRF LiDAR Projects
Lessons Learned
LiDAR Defined
LiDAR is a an acronym for Light Detection And Ranging that
relies on measuring the distance from an aircraft to the Earths
surface by precisely timing the round-trip travel time of a brief
pulse of laser light

The travel-time is measured from the time the laser pulse is
fired to the time laser light is reflected back from the surface.

The reflected laser light is received and converted to distance
from the plane to the surface based on the speed of light.



LiDAR Data Collection

Laser Pulse Returns
2006 AGRG
LiDAR Data Collect
3-Stage LiDAR Data Collection and
Management Process
1. Identification of Study Area
2. Supply study area background files
3. Flight Planning
4. GPS Base Station Operation (Ground Crew)
5. Hardware Install (Flight Crew)
6. In-Flight Data Collection
7. Raw data processing
8. Point Classification and Export
9. Creation of DEMs and other products

Pre-Flight
Post-Flight
Collection Day
Identification of Study Area
Supply of Background Files
Provided the following;
Georeferenced NTS Topo Map Image
Rivers, Roads etc. as shapefile vectors
Survey Monuments text file
Selected Best Available Base Station Monument
Flight Planning
Optechs ALTM Nav Software is Used to Plan Flights

Hardware Install
2005 AGRG Summer LiDAR Workshop
?
540 km by Air!
Flight Leaves Late from PEIYes I said PEI
GPS-Base Station Set-up
96G7002 CRK 120 48 56 38.4634 57 56 59.0467 100 Y A R 2003 68.554 100 1 P 1 CGVD28 1999 1 1 012A13
98F001 98F001 100 48 56 38 57 56 59 S S 64.970 100 1 P 1 CGVD28 1999 1 1 012A13
98F002 98F002 100 48 56 38 57 56 59 S S 66.563 100 1 P 1 CGVD28 1999 1 1 012A13
96F003 96F003 100 48 56 38 57 56 59 S S 67.709 100 1 P 1 CGVD28 1999 1 1 012A13
In-Flight Data Collection
Pilot maintains course(and checks fuel level!)
Technician maintains Laser and data checking
Raw Data Processing
Data Sources
Aircraft Global Positioning System (A-GPS)
Base Station GPS
Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU)
Inertial Navigation System (INS)
LiDAR Returns
Applanix PosPac Software
Raw Data Processing
(ALTM Workflow)
SBET File
A-GPS Base Station GPS IMU INS
+
+ +
Raw Flight Data is processed in PosPac to create an SBET File.
PosPac is used primarily for 3d sensor location.
Raw Data Processing



Optech REALM Software
LiDAR Return
Data
LAS Binary File
SBET File
+
SBET file and LiDAR return data is processed to create a LAS Binary File
Point Classification and Export
LAS files are processed in TerraScan to classify points as vegetation, ground, non-
ground etc.

LAS Binary File
Vegetation Ground Non-Ground
TerraScan (Microstation)
LAS Files
LAS (LASer) contains LiDAR point data
records which combine GPS,IMU and
laser pulse returns to produce X,Y and Z
point data.(others too like intensity)
ASPRS Open Data specification/standard
and format
Specification now at version 1.4, 2.0 is in
the works

Item Fmt 0 Fmt 1 Fmt 2 Fmt 3 Fmt 4 Fmt 5 Fmt 6 Fmt 7 Fmt 8 Fmt 9 Fmt 10
X
X X X X X X X X X X X

Y
X X X X X X X X X X X

Z
X X X X X X X X X X X

Intensity
X X X X X X X X X X X

Return Number
X X X X X X X X X X X

Number of Returns (given pulse)
X X X X X X X X X X X

Scan Direction Flag
X X X X X X X X X X X

Edge of Flight Line
X X X X X X X X X X X

Classification
X X X X X X X X X X X

Scan Angle Rank
X X X X X X X X X X X

User Data
X X X X X X X X X X X

Point Source ID
X X X X X X X X X X X
GPS Time
X X X X X X X X X
Red
X X X X X X
Green
X X X X X X
Blue
X X X X X X
Wave Packet Descriptor Index X X X X
Byte offset to waveform data
X X X X
Waveform packet size in bytes X X X X
Return Point Waveform Location X X X X
X(t) X X X X
Y(t) X X X X
Z(t) X X X X
NIR X
TerraScan Classification Options
Point Cross-Section

Point Classification and Export
Classified LAS points are exported as ascii xyz files
Vegetation Ground Non-Ground
Ground.xyz Non-Ground.xyz Vegetation.xyz
TerraScan
RESULTS

OCTOBER 2006 LiDAR
Lots of Points..


343,083,691 Total Points!



More than 25GB of Data!

Tiles make data Manageable
523 tiles in all
Delivered Data Formats
14 industry standard LAS binary all hits files.
523 ASCII space delimited x,y,z,i files for
Ground Only Returns
523 ASCII space delimited x,y,z,i files for All
Hits
Derivative Product Development
Reformatted
ASCII
Raster
ASC
Raster
GDB
Raster
Mosaics
Surfer
Grids
Shapefiles
DEMS
DSM
Slope
Grids
Vegetation
Grids
Aspect
Grids
Hillshade
Grids
342475
Ground Points
Points
DEM from Ground Points
Hillshade
Slope
Aspect
Surfer Tile294 All Hits
Surfer Tile294 Ground ONLY
Selected LiDAR Software
TerraScan (Part of TerraSolid)
Surfer
QT Modeler
LP360
LiDAR Analyst
LASTools
Voxler
Pointools
ArcMAP/ArcToolbox


Terrasolid(Terrascan)
Surfer

QT Modeler/Reader(Applied Imagery)
LP360 in ArcMAP
LiDAR Analyst (Overwatch)
LasTools(Martin Isenburg)
* txt2las.exe converts LIDAR data from ASCII text to binary LAS format
* las2txt.exe turns LAS into human-readable and easy-to-parse ASCII text
* lasinfo.exe prints out a quick overview of the contents of a LAS file
* las2shp.exe turns binary LAS into ESRI's Shapefile format
* shp2las.exe turns an ESRI's Shapefile into binary LAS
* lasmerge.exe can merge several LAS files into one
* las2las.exe extracts only last returns, clips, subsamples, etc ...
* lasthin.exe implements a simple point thinning algorithm
* las2tin.exe triangulates the points of a LAS file into a TIN
* las2dem.exe rasterizes them into a DEM
* las2iso.exe extracts, optionally simplified, elevation contours
* lasview.exe visualizes the contents of a LAS file.
* lasclip.exe clipping LiDAR points
* ArcGIS for Desktop toolbox.
Voxler (Golden Software)
Pointools (Bentley)
ESRI Las Dataset
ESRI Tools
Point File Information
file name, point count, z-minimum, z-maximum,
and point spacing
LAS to multipoint
LAS Point Statistics as Raster
pulse count, return count, intensity range others
LAS Dataset to Raster
Entire Section dedicated to LAS in help
including Canopy Height workflow

2006 Data Issues
and
Processing Screw-ups !
OCTOBER 2006 LiDAR
Holes!
City and Marble Holes
Low Point Density
0.63 points/Square m
Up to 15 points m
2
possible

March 2009 before all issues were fixed.
Applications
(For good LiDAR!)
What is it used for ?
Lidar data can be used to accurately measure the topography
of the ground, even where overlying vegetation is quite dense.

The data can also be used to determine the height and density
of the overlying vegetation, and to characterize the location,
shape, and height of buildings and other structures.
Selected Products, Uses and Applications

High Accuracy DEM (Derived Products Slope, Aspect etc..)
3D fly through simulations
Landscape visualizations
Tourism and Municipal applications
Accurate contours for a variety of mapping applications
Geophysical applications and visualizations
Flood Hazard Mapping, Coastal zone mapping and assessment
Delineate vegetation height and type
Classified LiDAR(Leading Edge Geomatics)

RGB Classified LiDAR (Leading Edge Geomatics )

Recent GRF LiDAR Projects
LiDAR /Ortho Data Collection for 10 sites in
Western Newfoundland collected in July 2010
Avalanche Research with MUN SWG Campus
Geohazard Monitoring in conjunction with CCRS
New flight planned for this Summer 2013
Avalanche Hazard Maps
Avalanche Services/Web Apps
Google/JavaScript App
LiDAR GeoHazard Sites
The houses are constructed on a marine
terrace with a surface elevation of about 24
m above present sea level. The Northern
Peninsula Highway is located about 20-70
m inland of the cliff edge, between which
14 buildings were located.
October 20, 2006
April 15, 2007
Newfoundland, Canada
Daniels Harbour:
RADARSAT-2 Ultra Fine
Master: 20090610
Slave: 20090914
Descending Orbit
Perpendicular Baseline: 67 m
Deformations are only shown where the scene coherence exceeds 0.5
RADARSAT-2 - 3x3 multi look intensity image
-50 0 50
Vertical displacement [mm]
April 2007
There is no an existing high resolution DEM. Therefore, 3-pass
differential interferometric processing applied to monitor the
temporal evolution of landslide.
Daniels Harbour InSAR Displacement Map:
ArcMAP WorkFlow
LAS Files
Multipoint
FeatureClass
Terrain
1m Raster
DEM
HillShade
Slope
Aspect
Focus Area (Daniels hr.)
MultiPoint Featureclass
Terrain
1m Raster
Hillshade
Slope
Aspect
Some Lessons Learned
Data areas need a specific purpose/focus. The
data collect can be tuned to needs( forest
metrics, DEM etc. No one flight can do it all!
Do your homework know what to ask for.
Some vendors will only provide x,y,z if that is
all you ask for. Lots of other useful info
hides in your LiDAR
Manage stakeholder expectations (software,
formats, coordinate system(s))
Lessons Learned
Discuss data sharing policies and distribution
between partners, vendors and external
stakeholders
Dont be locked into a single GIS platform use
the best tool for the job(Some SW slow.)
Leave the raw LiDAR processing to the
vendors focus on GIS ready deliverables
Use a reputable experienced vendor (Highly
recommend Leading Edge Geomatics.

Lidar Project Partnerships