2010 LiDAR Collection in West Virginia’s Coal Fields

WVAGP MeetingDecember 7, 2010

LiDAR collection specifications

• Horizontal postings: 1 meter

• Vertical accuracy: 15 centimeters

• Additional derived data products include:– ESRI elevation grid– Hillshade– 2 foot contours used in AML program– Intensity image useful in QCing LiDAR data

• ~ 2 TB of data before derived products

Slide 2

Initially Contracted LiDAR AoI

Slide 3

AoI polygons are watershed rather than county-based.

Initial AoI encompassed

about 5,000,000

acres or about 33% of the

State

Project Status as of Nov. 29, 2010

Slide 4

1,322,454 acres

1,162,728 acres

1,162,728 acres

Highest priority area of the state was about 3,000,00 acres. 2,485,182 acres

have been completed collected.

A

B

Built an ICI (=isolated computing island)• Isolated three VERY high performance

computers from central IT C&C during VERY long compute jobs:– No pushes of server OS upgrades– … followed by the requisite reboots– Isolated from any network dependence for

software licenses network outages

– Enough local storage and bandwidth to create more than 8 TB of local storage and a peer-to-peer within-the-room network

– UPS on each PC still working on this.

Slide 5

QCing LiDAR & LiDAR software

Slide 6

• QCing LiDAR deliverables– 2003 Statewide GCPs file– Multiple LiDAR datasets that overlap

difference grid calculation

– Trimble R8 GNSS receivers – Outsource via FEMA monies a go too

• Software 64 bit, use multicores– Virtual Geomatics 2 floating seats

– Applied Imagery’s Quick Terrain Modeler 1 seat Approval of software purchase still

pending 10 months after start of the

project … no end in site!!!

Two Shorted URISA LiDAR Workshop Topics

Slide 7

• Wide area vs. corridor LiDAR

• Use of LiDAR intensity data as a substitute for aerial photography– LAS Version 1.1 (… dates back to 1.0)

LiDAR Intensity Image

Slide 8

Produced from spring 2009 flight contracted by the Cabell County

Assessor’s Office two whole LiDAR tiles

LiDAR Intensity Image

Slide 9

Produced from spring 2009 flight contracted by the Cabell County

Assessor’s Office two whole LiDAR tiles

Zoom in from here

LiDAR News Headlines …

• The good– WVDEP has some more funding for

additional LiDAR data deliverables

• The bad– About 50% of our initial AoI remains

uncollected 17% of West Virginia

• The ugly– WVU’s existing LiDAR hardware and

software is supported by Optech for only 1 more year.

Slide 10

The end

Slide 11

If we don’t take a shot at partnering more effectively

…

… future opportunities may be lost