Mark E. Meade, PE, PLS, CP

It is pretty hard to pick up a technical or trade journal these days and not see an article on mobile mapping somewhere within the pages.

As I walk out the front door of our office each evening, I pass by a pile of boxes set for overnight shipping.

A few years ago, it was fairly uncommon for me to undertake projects with a requirement for tide- coordinated acquisition. This situation has changed.

Significant advances have been made in the technology available for use on mapping projects. The trend toward delivering larger projects in a compressed time frame has driven further changes.

Like all other types of mapping projects, proper planning is critical to the success of a LiDAR project.

Project specifications typically spell out accuracy requirements for both the horizontal and vertical components in LiDAR collection. But while a thorough assessment and reporting of the vertical accuracy of the elevation surface is almost always completed for LiDAR projects, a formal evaluation of the horizontal accuracy is less often required.

I gave a brief review of the results from the first meeting held last year on this effort. This month, I will report on the second National LiDAR Strategy Meeting held May 21-22 at the headquarters of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in Reston, Va.

Breaklines are an important component of most terrain models. They serve as 3D lines that control the surface behavior in terms of smoothness and continuity.

Not too long ago, a professional land surveyor whom I respect posed a very interesting question centering on the relationship between LiDAR and traditional photogrammetry: will LiDAR ever eliminate the need for aerial photography? The question was prompted from a debate in his surveying/engineering firm regarding the future of photogrammetry.