Mark Romano Harris Corporation

12H

Florida presents many challenges to aerial lidar topographic mapping.  The majority of U.S. lidar projects benefit from leaf off collection in clear fall weather in dry conditions.  In Southwest Florida, these conditions are exacerbated by its sub-tropical (heavy canopy) environment where leaf-off conditions are nearly nonexistent.  This can be further complicated by significant fluctuations in water tables by heavy rainfall, hurricanes, and changes in the landscape making terrain mapping significantly challenging.  The Southwest Florida Water Management District (SWFWMD), the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (BOCC), and the City of Tampa (COT), cooperatively funded a high-density linear scan lidar acquisition mission in the winter of 2017.  Harris Corporation, funded a high-density Geiger-mode lidar over the same area in the summer of 2018 for comparison of foliage penetration and subsequent terrain data development.

This paper will assess project collection and efficiency, accuracy, foliage penetration, and present new qualitative and quantitative methods to assess data in a more rigorous way.  Discussion will explore Nominal Point Spacing (NPS) vs Nominal Point Density (NPD), spatial distribution, horizontal accuracy, voids in super resolution data vs the current 4 × ANPS specification, and other methods to ensure data quality independent of technology.

11:45 Real-World Performance Evaluation of Linear and Geiger-Mode Lidar in Hillsborough County FL., Mark Romano