[GRASS-user] LiDAR Data?

[Markus Neteler]

On Thu, Jun 10, 2010 at 12:14 AM, Rich Shepard <rshepard at appl-ecosys.com> wrote:
>  I thought that I could use LiDAR data within grass,

You can :)

> but the 6.4 r.in.gdal
> man page does not include that format. Is this the wrong module for these
> data?

There is no format "Lidar" - in fact there are many formats related to
Lidar data:

- raw x,z,y,w points in ASCII tables (v.in.ascii)
- LAS format (LAS tools + v.in.ascii)
- other point based ASCII formats (v.in.ascii)
- points in 3D SHAPE format (vector, v.in.ogr)
- rasterized DSM in GeoTIFF or whatever (raster, r.in.gdal)
- ...

>  There are two topographic quadrangle files that cover the project drainage
> basin, and the data DVDs cost $200 each. I want to make high resolution DEMs
> of the project basin and try to determine flood elevations for different
> storm events from those. According to the data source, "All data are format
> specific to ESRI GIS format. Data must be viewed using specialty software
> capable of viewing .shp, geotif, and ESRI grid formats."

So GRASS can do that.

>  I suppose that r.in.gdal will import the .shp files.

No, it is v.in.ogr.

> I've not worked with
> geotif or ESRI grid formats so any experiences of you folks with these
> formats and LiDAR data will be much appreciated.

For GeoTIFF, use r.in.gdal.

To process Lidar point data, then use v.lidar.*.
The already mentioned wiki page may be helpful, too.

Markus