LIDAR technique application to the analysis of environmental pollution

Abstract

Landfill sites are the simplest and most common ways to eliminate urban solid waste, although large amounts of pollutants are introduced into the environment, such us dust, gas, soluble and insoluble substances. Both the digital model of the landfill surface and the three-dimensional meshing of the domain, where the dispersion phenomena is analyzed, are essential when modelling pollutant behaviour using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD3D). The commonly used Digital Surface Models are generated by combining a set of geometric primitives. These are obtained through a process of scanning, in which a set of points, which geometrically defines the landfill site, are identified by the derived cartography. In this study, we propose a procedure to digitally model a real surface from a data point cloud obtained through LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology, which identifies, in real-time, the main geometry that defines its surface. Thus, these landfill digital models are exported into the Ansys CFX 10.0 software for numerical modelling, in order to analyze the behaviour of dust and odours generated by the landfill site. The importance of LIDAR data technology in the study of environmental pollution produced by landfill sites is supported by the correlation between the obtained results through modelling and those obtained through field measurement programmes. © 2010 WIT Press.