Journal of Agriculture
and Environmental Sciences

Determining Highly Erodible Land Utilizing LIDAR Data
McDermott, Michael PhD; Megan Baker, M.S.

Abstract
Light Detection and Ranging collects a vast amount of data regarding the earth’s surface. Utilizing this data to produce accurate field maps for a specific purpose was a goal for the Natural Resource Conservation Service. Field testing of the software tools designed to utilize LIDAR data was completed by the researchers. The results of the field test created land maps revealing the areas of Highly Erodible Land (HEL) and other classifications based upon erodibility. The utilization of LIDAR data created maps of extreme accuracy without the traditional on-site field data collection process. The researchers concluded that the software was a major time saving process that could replace in the field surveying and data collection. The most limiting factor in the software mapping process is the user’s learning curve to learn the new software intricacies.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jaes.v8n1a7