Research in Lidar Mapping on the East Coast

The Applied Geomatics Research Group, a spinoff of COGS at NSCC in 2000 has been conducting applied research using lidar since it’s inception. Originally by contracting lidar providers to conduct surveys in the Maritimes for flood hazard mapping, then in the 2005 operating their our topographic lidar, the Optech ALTM 3100, then moving into the coastal environment with the Leica Chiroptera 4X topo-bathymetric lidar, and most recently moving to the relatively low cost drones for topo-lidar mapping with the DJI L1 and L2 lidars. In addition to these airborne lidar systems they have also kept up with terrestrial lidar scanners and most recently lower cost lidar pucks where they have built an off-the shelf system for mapping power lines and vegetation encroachment. The presentation will quickly review the history of lidar research at AGRG with emphasis on the latest technology and applications they are utilizing, including combining airborne and drone-based sensor data.