USGS and Airborne 1 Announce First LiDAR Exchange

06 February 2009, 9:17am

El Segundo, CA – February 6, 2009 - U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) CLICK (Center for LiDAR Information Coordination and Knowledge) and Airborne 1 Corporation, a leading provider of advanced LiDAR services, rentals, and software worldwide, have entered into a collaboration to share extents of the largest compilations of high-resolution LiDAR point cloud data in the world.

This data will reside separately on the CLICK site and lidardata.com. Data on lidardata.com is available in various formats including LAS, ENZI, XYZI, and DEM. Lidardata.com provides a useful, cost-saving service by preventing pre-flown data from becoming obsolete; such data is often useful for change detection applications and other purposes. This collaboration will provide an informational link between the two efforts, showing users where both free, publicly-available lidar data exist on CLICK, as well as commercial, pre-flown resale data exist on lidardata.com. Technical integration of the two sites is ongoing and a release date will be announced soon.

USGS is currently providing over 78,000 square miles of lidar point cloud data available for download right now on CLICK, with several state-wide collections coming in soon. USGS eventually hopes to provide 10 terrabytes of unrestricted data.

Lidardata.com currently houses approximately 260,000 square km of data. Additional data can be added by any third party interested in resale distribution of their own high-res 3D data sets.

USGS is an unbiased, multi-disciplinary science organization dedicated to the timely, relevant, and impartial study of the landscape, our natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten us. USGS is spearheading an initiative to build the National Map. The role of the USGS as manager of The National Map is to establish partnerships with these organizations to coordinate and negotiate access to their data, develop protocols for data integration, develop data maintenance processes, and define data requirements.

“We’re pleased to initiate this groundbreaking collaboration with USGS and proud that Airborne 1 will be the first commercial provider to give CLICK an index of available commercial lidar extents,” said Todd Stennett, Airborne 1’s CEO. “Customers desiring the most cost-efficient option possible when looking for LiDAR data of a specific region may find pre-flown data offers quality at a better price, as opposed to the full costs of a new LiDAR mission.”

USGS CLICK site

Lidardata.com

Airborne 1

Geo: International