Wyoming Statewide LIDAR Effort
The most promising new technology to enable the gathering and subsequent
availability of elevation data is Light Detection and Ranging
or LIDAR. LIDAR technology uses a laser and sensor to transmit and receive
pulses from reflected surfaces.
Within Wyoming, NRCS and the Wyoming Association of Conservation
Districts (WACD) are leading an effort to acquire a statewide LIDAR-based
1-meter bare-earth and first-return Digital Elevation Model or DEM. At an estimated cost of $10 million,
this project would be about the same price as our first orthophoto effort
and would provide many lasting benefits to the state. NRCS and WACD hope to build a
partnership with federal and state agencies and others with a goal to acquire this data in
2008 or 2009.
LIDAR Benefits for
Natural Resource Management
Current technological advances have made possible the collection and analysis
of elevation data over large areas at a scale that has not been feasible to do
in the past. Acquisition and processing of LIDAR to produce
high resolution elevation data typically runs from $80 - $800/sq. mile. In
Wyoming, we have received an estimate of about $95/sq. mile to acquire a
statewide 1-1.5 meter DEM. Potential benefits
of LIDAR in comparison
to traditional photogrammetric methods of DEM generation include:
- Creation
of highly accurate DEMs
and defensible 2-foot contours
- A larger area can be covered in less time,
- Canopy
penetration to ground, DEMs
of wooded areas are more reliable
- Timely data delivery 2 to 6 months
Importance to natural resource management and planning
Acquisition of high resolution elevation data derived from LIDAR is an
opportunity to take advantage of an extremely accurate and consistent base layer
that will benefit a wide-ranging user group. Applications for this
technology include:
- Landform extraction (ridges, benches, valleys, mesas,
etc.)
- Surface feature extraction (trees, roads, buildings,
etc.)
- Hydrologic modeling
- Community planning
- Engineering surveys and planning
- Accurate mapping of
vegetation height, density and heterogeneity
- Floodplain delineations
- Terrain visualization
- Determination of slope gradient, aspect, and complexity
- Fast and accurate stream cross-section acquisition and
geomorphology mapping
- Watershed evaluations
- Wildfire planning, fire behavior modeling, and rehab
-
Oil and gas and mining rehab
Conventional DEMs do not provide the level of accuracy needed to analyze
small (1-2 foot) differences. LIDAR digital elevation data can be generated at a
variety of resolutions. Obtaining the highest resolution available will provide
the greatest benefit for the greatest number of an agency’s business
practices. For areas where coarser data is required, high-resolution DEMs can
easily be resampled to meet those requirements.
Contacts
Bobbie Frank, Executive Director, Wyoming Association of Conservation
Districts, Cheyenne, WY
email: waocd@tribcsp.com
Randy Wiggins, GIS Coordinator, USDA-NRCS, Casper, WY
email: randy.wiggins@wy.usda.gov
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