A review of standards for airborne LiDAR data acquisition, processing, QA/QC, and delivery

Abstract

LiDAR (light detection and ranging) has become the de facto standard for collection of three-dimensional high-resolution spatial data, in the form of point cloud. In the presence of several agencies procuring LiDAR data, various software to process and classify data, and various survey requirements of the users of data with respect to horizontal and vertical accuracy, it has become imperative to establish standards for procurement, quality assessment, quality control (QA/QC), data storage, and data delivery. Several agencies have independently proposed standards in these areas, which have invariably lead to the need of a supporting document, which will help users in mentioning the different specifications with respect to surveying, accuracy, storage, and delivery aspects. In this paper, the authors present a review of the existing standards and draw out a template for supporting a user in mentioning the various technical requirements of LiDAR data, with respect to the needs of a project.