3D Analysis for Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) Data for East of Jeddah Province by Using ARCGIS

The knowledge of the surface topography has a major importance in the field of Earth sciences. It is essential in any discipline concerned with process modeling like hydrology, climatology, geomorphology and ecology. The present study utilized Environmental Systems Research Institute’s (ESRI) ArcGIS 9.3 (with the spatial analyst extension) software, remote sensing data ( DEM and Digital Aerial Photo) of the study area (East Jeddah Province) to extract a different maps of exact geographical locations, like; Contour map, Slop map, Aspect map and Hill-shade map. By using these maps, the land surface and terrain classification of the study area could be realized on a detailed understanding of its terrain variation characteristics (Terrain Classification) also to the natural surface features that including hills, valleys Streams ...etc. The results show that the landscape features of the study area included three main units: Flat, rolling and Mountainous (Highland and Ridge). All the output maps were defined according to WGS84_UTM_Zone 37N system.