Interested in exploring the use and potential of 3D Lidar data? If you’re interested lidar data and you’d like to get ideas on how to take advantage of it, this is for you! This presentation introduces several examples of lidar in real world projects, the potential value of lidar to various types of work, and key resources for locating quality data (free!).

4. So you go out and get yourself some.

7. White River National Forest
Camp Hale / Eagle River Restoration Project

8. Camp Hale / Eagle River Restoration Project
Large scale, multi-focus landscape restoration project
✓ River channel restoration
✓ Wetland restoration
✓ Terrestrial restoration
✓ Recreation enhancement
✓ Historical preservation

9. Camp Hale / Eagle River Restoration Project
How is lidar being used?
Lidar Point
Cloud
1m DEM Hillshade

10. Camp Hale / Eagle River Restoration Project
How is lidar being used?
Mapping historic foundations & structures

11. Camp Hale / Eagle River Restoration Project
How is lidar being used?
Calculate cut and fill values for river channel rerouting

12. Camp Hale / Eagle River Restoration Project
How is lidar being used?
Map recreation infrastructure

13. Town of Silverthorne
Trail route planning
New housing development being built
✓ Town & USFS have partnered to build a new trail
linking the new development into the network of
trails in the Gore Range.
✓ Heavy blowdown events in beetle kill forest over
the last decade present significant challenges to
trail construction in the area
✓ Need to find a trail route that is the least difficult
to construct and also provides the best hiking
experience

14. Town of Silverthorne
Trail route planning
By filtering out first and second returns, a hybrid
DEM/DSM was produced to help visually map the
blowdown areas.
How is lidar being used?

17. High detail, Lidar derived DEM is used to find the best
topography to route the trail through

18. Lidar + Imagery = Fast, Accurate Urban Tree
Canopy & Land Cover Mapping

19. Urban tree canopy and land cover mapping in cities across
North America helps decision makers get a clear picture of
what’s happening.
✓ Where are the trees?
✓ What are the spatial relationships between tree canopy and
natural or anthropogenic environmental factors?
✓ Where are there possible planting areas for new trees?
✓ What landcover changes have occurred over time?
✓ What are the social, environmental and economic benefits of
the trees?

20. Lidar
Point
Cloud
Subtract
ground
returns
from first
returns
Height
Model
(nDSM)
Aerial
Imagery
Object
Based
Image
Analysis
Landcover
Raster

34. BLM Carlsbad Field Office
Lidar helps find field sites remotely
Bureau of Land Management – Carlsbad, NM field
office – Archeology team

35. BLM Carlsbad Field Office
“The pit containing the century plants while
cooking.” Pliny E. Goddard, 1914, Calva, AMNH
Neg. No. 242720; permission pending.

36. BLM Carlsbad Field Office
Figure 19. Three examples of ring-midden profiles derived from lidar data (ring-midden Features 70, 87, and 201).
How is lidar being used?

37. BLM Carlsbad Field Office

38. BLM Carlsbad Field Office

39. USFS Southwestern Region
Going back in time, recreating lost historic sites from phodar
Wanted to map and visualize in 3D a historic logging
camp that no longer exists
✓ New lidar collection couldn’t
be used because the
structures are no longer there
✓ But, they have historic stereo
imagery of the camp

40. Historic stereo
imagery
Phodar point
cloud
DSM
Extruded
Structures
How is lidar being used?

42. Point clouds from NAIP
The FSA has been experimenting with creating statewide phodar
point clouds as a part of NAIP collections.
A phodar point cloud was generated for the entire state of Wyoming
during their latest NAIP collections in 2015
The BLM ran some accuracy assessments and results look promising!
A phodar point cloud was generated for Arizona in 2018

43. Vertical Accuracy Comparison – NED vs NAIP Point Cloud
Land Cover Class
# of Control
Points
NAIP Point Cloud
RMSEz (m)
1/3 Arc Sec NED
RMSEz (m)
All points 1,622 1.31 2.66
Open terrain 629 1.29 2.04
Tall weeds and crops 683 1.36 1.98
Brush lands and low trees 177 1.25 2.34
Urban / man-made
surfaces
95 1.34 2.05
Forested areas 39 1.06 2.89
1 x 1 m NAIP Point Cloud Derived Raster 1/3 Arc Second National Elevation Dataset