Woolpert was contracted by the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) to perform aerial mapping services to assess three landslide-prone areas along a 10-mile stretch of U.S. 26 in northwest Wyoming.  The site is close to Yellowstone National Park and along the Continental Divide.

Geologic conditions have caused multiple landslides in this region over the past decade, with some areas showing up to a foot of geologic movement during that span.  Woolpert was brought in to utilize the firm’s aircraft, its Leica TerrainMapper LiDAR sensor, and its in-house acquisition services to deliver classified LiDAR data and aerial imagery, which WYDOT can use to evaluate, prioritize, and mitigate possible landslide events.  Data collected over the three areas met or exceeded the requested 50 points per square meter.

WYDOT’s Photogrammetry and Surveys Section used the data to create well defined digital terrain models (DTMs) and triangulated irregular network (TIN) models specific to the needs of the department.  These models provide a detailed baseline of valuable data that will be compared to models created through future acquisitions to determine the slide movement, volume, and rate at which the earth is moving.  TerrainMapper’s integrated RCD30 camera simultaneously acquired high-definition, 3-inch ground sample distance imagery that was rectified and used to colorize the LiDAR point cloud.