Strip Adjustment of Lidar Data

LIght Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) is a technique, which allows for measuring a huge amount of object point coordinates with accuracies up to some centimeters in short time. Their conversion into a highly accurate Digital Terrain Model (DTM) requires a careful handling of the single processing steps, from the flight planning until the manual revision of the generated DTM, considering the different error sources. In addition it must be ensured, that the LIDAR system maintains correctly calibrated during all the flight sessions. This paper describes a simple adjustment approach, which compensates for the mayor part of systematic vertical errors, mainly originating from the GPS, and it allows for almost automatic processing also of huge amounts of laser data. The approach was developed and applied in the framework of a real project, whose objective was to generate a highly accurate DTM of the Eastern Ter river. The obtained results of two selected sub-blocks are presented, which are also verified by independent check points.