Lab 2: LiDAR

 

For this week's lab we created a Digital Elevation Model and a Digital Surface Model using LiDAR data downloaded from .las files from Virginia Geographic Information Network of Big Meadows Area in Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. To complete the lab I used many new skills and tools that I've never used before! To use the data, I used the Convert to LAS tool and LAS Dataset to Raster Tool. I also used the Point File Information tool for the first time to get the average point spacing to tell me what cell size to use for raster creation. I used the LAS to Multipoint tool to convert the LiDAR point cloud data into a multipoint feature class so I could separate the bare earth and vegetation into specific point classes. From there I used the Point to Raster tool to convert both ground and vegetation feature classes into rasters. Then, I used the IS NULL tool to identify where data was missing and used the Con tool to replace the NULL values with 0 to make them valid. I used the Plus Tool to get the total return counts for ground and vegetation and then the Float tool to prepare to use the Divide Tool to get the Canopy Density Raster which you can see in the main map frame of my final layout. 

To make the inset DSM map, I used the LAS Dataset to Raster tool for non-ground points. I then used the Minus tool to get the Tree Height Raster. I've included the Tree Height Distribution chart in my final layout as well to give a greater picture of the vegetation in this region.