DEM's & LiDAR

This exercise was fun if you had the right hardware to process the LAS pointcloud.  Having thousands of point features populate is bound to have a few ArcPro crashes involved and I became more efficient by the end of the exercise because of it.  Experimenting with hillshades and transparency in a Scene is always enjoyable, though this is the first time I've created a DEM using LiDAR data.  Proper file tree maintenance and output layer organization were essential when running multiple processes twice for both ground and non-ground points.  It took me several times of re-reading the workflow involving the IS NULL and CON tools to finally understand what was going on with the resulting rasters.  Needless to say, this is an exercise I'm going to hold on to for reference in the future.

Calculating canopy density and other characteristics of forested areas has become extremely efficient with LiDAR and UAV's.  By saving time and money while not sacrificing accuracy, LiDAR is a phenomenal technology with dozens, if not hundreds applications.  Below is a map of a hillshaded DEM, a scene showing the canopy density overlayed on the DEM, and a map of the tree heights with a chart.  The data is from a Virgina LiDAR dataset.  With a vertical drop of about 1,600', the area is a bit hilly and has a campground located at the top of the hill overlooking a valley.  It's probably pretty beautiful.  There are big contrasts between the forested and resurfaced areas in the symbology, and with the topography of the area, this was a good exercise to experiment with different color ramps and transparencies.