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CEO Message: LiDAR Fact and Fiction

Despite the fact that LiDAR has been a tried and tested technology for 30 years now, there are still many myths and misunderstandings about it. For example, because LiDAR sensors are expensive and because the process of LiDAR seems a little complicated to some, there's a perception in the mapping industry that LiDAR isn't cost-effective on small projects.

This is incorrect. In fact, Airborne 1 and many other firms routinely perform high volume of small sites at reasonable prices. We price any state in the Southwest at about $3500, plus $1.49 per acre, if given some lead time. Once the acreage reaches a few hundred, the per-acre fee can fall considerably. The trick is to take advantage of the low marginal cost of pooling multiple jobs in the same area, which decreases ferrying fees, even working with competitors who might be cooperative. Sandra Wade-Grusky, Airborne 1's Marketing Manager, and I debunk this myth and many more in the April issue of Professional Surveyor. An excerpt is below:

To surveyors who haven't yet used the technology, LiDAR may sound like some futuristic, Star Trek invention that costs a fortune to use. While LiDAR does represent the cutting edge of mapping technology, the average LiDAR project actually costs less than one completed with traditional photogrammetric techniques.

Studies have shown that LiDAR requires only 25-33 percent of the budget needed for photogrammetric compilation (see Petzold et al., 1999), possibly due to project delays casused by less-than-ideal environmental conditions, or by the time-consuming, expensive processes required by traditional photogrammetry.

LiDAR outperforms traditional photogrammetry in other areas, too:

• LiDAR sensors can be operated in weather and at low sun angles that would prevent an aerial photographic survey
• Rural and remote areas can be surveyed easily and quickly, because each XYZ point is individually geo-referenced, and aerial triangulation or orthorectification of data is not required.
• Photogrammetric methods for DTM generation are very time-consuming and labor-intensive compared to airborne laser mapping
• LiDAR performs well in forest areas where vegetation cover prevents visibility of the ground in aerial photographs
• LiDAR is better for road, pipeline, or power line planning for narrow corridor mapping
• LiDAR works well for open-pit mining operations where the final data is needed within a few hours of collection.

For more information on how to read the full article "LiDAR Fact and Fiction", go to Professional Surveyor's website.

Photos

Sample LiDAR data: Airborne 1 recently collected data for St. Louis

Above: Laser image of Hoover Dam on the Arizona-Nevada border

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