Geodetic imaging by airborne LiDAR: A golden age in geodesy – A bonanza for related sciences

Abstract

One and a half centuries after the founding of the IAG, geodetic imaging (GI) represents a golden age in geodesy, and a bonanza of never-before-available quantitative information for research in related fields of science. Airborne LiDAR (light detection and ranging) observations, and such derived products as ‘bare earth’ digital elevation models, are being used to study: earthquake deformation fields, fault slip rates, folding mechanisms, landslide dynamics, channel network evolution, soil mantle development, bedrock surface cracking, landscape response to tectonics, lava flow fluxes, marsh evolution, salmon habitat, beach erosion, forestry, and archaeological sites. LiDAR technology is still developing rapidly, with high priority being given to multi-color systems, and miniaturization that will enable the deployment of LiDAR in remotely piloted aircraft, a.k.a., drones. As such technological improvements become operational new scientific problems will be brought within reach of an increasingly diverse community of researchers.