High Definition LiDAR
Terranean’s high definition LiDAR offers a paradigm shift in the level of detail and accuracy attainable in the mapping of terrain, infrastructure and vegetation.
A detailed description of LiDAR and associated derived products can be found in our Glossary
In the example below Terranean’s LiDAR scanner has mapped a stadium, tower, buildings and vegetation to an absolute accuracy of under 2.5 cm. That is, the ground and all features above the ground over a large urban area have been captured to detailed design standards of accuracy.
3 Dimensional view of LiDAR point cloud integrated with Colour Digital Orthophotography
Terranean’s high definition LiDAR has the technical characteristics that allow it to:
- Map the ground in great detail and at absolute accuracies as low as 2.5cm;
- Capture detailed infrastructure such as 1cm power cables;
- Penetrate very thick vegetation such as North Queensland rainforest;
- Model the shape, height and density of vegetation for environmental and forestry applications;
- Simultaneously capture digital aerial photography hereby avoiding the cost of a second flight.
The scanner employs a Class 1 Eye Safe laser which allows the scanner to be flown safely at low altitudes over urban areas thereby further enhancing the detail of the final product.
The following summarizes the applications that are ideally suited to Terranean’s LiDAR capability.
General Mapping
Terranean conducts LiDAR surveys over areas as small as 100 Ha and as large 10,000 sq km’s. Absolute accuracies range from 10cm for large area mapping projects to 2.5cm for detailed design projects.
Cost effective detailed terrain over large areas
Typical general mapping applications include:
- Terrain and ortho-photography for preliminary design of powerlines, farm design and pipelines;
- High accuracy surveys for detailed design of roads and railways;
- Flood and sea rise modeling;
- Open cut mine mapping;
- Subsidence and disturbance detection surveys;
- Terrain and ortho-photography for land development projects.
Areas of subsidence due to mining long walls clearly visible over a 12 month period
Data can be provided in a number of different ways. These include:
- Detailed Digital Terrain Model (DTM): very detailed LiDAR ground points which are only usable by selected design packages over small areas;
- Filtered DTM: 85% of points are removed from the detailed DTM while maintaining the integrity of the ground with the resultant data being usable by most design packages;
- Digital Elevation Model (DEM): is an interpolated regular grid that is very manageable and easy to use by virtually all engineering and GIS packages;
- Ortho-photography from 5cm resolution.
High Quality Digital Photography captured simultaneously with LiDAR
Powerline Mapping
Traditionally, power line LiDAR mapping by fixed wing aircraft and helicopter has captured data at an insufficient accuracy in comparison to ground survey. Terranean’s scanner is flown in a fixed wing aircraft to capture large areas at high levels of detail and sub-2 cm relative accuracies.
Typical level of detail captured by Terranean’s LiDAR from a fixed wing plane
Terranean’s LiDAR can:
- Clearly define wires as small as 1cm in diameter with a large number of points thereby simplifying the conversion of these features to formats such as PLSCAD, Microstation and AutoCad.
- Define towers, substations, building and other infrastructure;
- Define vegetation in detail which allows the semi-automated location of points where the vegetation is too close to the conductors;
- Provide detailed terrain over the power corridor;
- Simultaneous capture of high resolution digital photography.
Long-section view of powerline data indicating the ground, vegetation and all conductors
Vegetation Mapping
Terranean’s scanner utilizes the technical features of wave form digitizing, infra-red laser and short pulse length to provide truly remarkable 3 dimensional mapping of vegetation.
Classified vegetation which clearly illustrates the shape, density and height of individual trees
Terranean’s LiDAR can:
- Provide the terrain data and ortho-photography as a base while also providing the following, all from the one flight;
- Define individual trees and provide forestry metrics including tree height, bole height and canopy density;
- Assess stream health and geomorphologic processes by measuring the state of banks and siltation, at the same time as measuring riparian vegetation density and foliage cover by strata;
- Highly accurate measurement of biomass for carbon accounting.
Detailed vegetation profiling provides data for a wide range of applications including forestry, ecological health and carbon accounting