The last decade has seen multifold growth in LiDAR technology world-wide. This technology has, to a large extent, replaced the conventional surveying techniques in several domains. This technology uses a laser beam or pulse to measure large number of points over the surface of a terrain. Highly accurate and dense measurements are carried out at a high speed. The resulting 3D point cloud along with the intensity information for each point is a valuable data for several applications. Laser scanning can be carried out by stationary and mobile platforms, which enable data collection in difficult scenarios and under varied field conditions. This talk will, however, focus on airborne LiDAR technology. 

This webinar will first discuss the basic principle of LiDAR technology and then describe the different applications that are now possible with this technology. The webinar will be useful for professionals who have some understanding of remote sensing, GIS or mapping technologies and are keen to use LiDAR technology in future. The talk will aim at providing basic information that are useful to a user of LiDAR technology including basic principle, data collection and processing steps, error sources and attainable accuracies. A list of applications will be introduced with detailed discussion on a few. In addition, links will be provided to further resource material, commercial and free software, available data and prevalent LiDAR survey standards.