Survey and Monitoring -
Lidar Surveys
Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) is an airborne mapping survey method which uses a laser to measure the distance between the aircraft and the ground. The aircraft also has a GPS (Global Positioning System) to record its position accurately. Commonly the laser takes a reading every 2m to produce a grid of data with an X co-ordinate (eastings), a Y co-ordinate (northings) and a height value.
Specialist software packages can take these grid files and produce digital terrain maps and present them in a three dimensional view.
This type of information is often used to identify flood risk areas but tends to provide a coarse guide that requires subsequent refinement. Insurance companies and the Environment Agency use this type of data for their initial flood risk assessments.
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