HES LiDAR Scottish Ten Project: 2010-2012 Point Clouds of Scottish World Heritage Sites

Historic Environment Scotland LiDAR data captured by Fugro in 2010 and 2012 for the Scottish Ten Project. The dataset covers five Scottish World Heritage Sites, including Edinburgh Old and New Town, the Heart of Neolithic Orkney, St Kilda, the Antonine Wall, and New Lanark, with data processed to a 0.5-meter resolution and a point density of 4 points per square meter. The data was originally supplied in XYZI and LAS formats and is available as LAZ and GeoTIFF files.

Use Cases

• Creating high-resolution digital terrain models for archaeological site analysis based on the 0.5m resolution LiDAR.
• Monitoring landscape change and erosion at World Heritage Sites using the multi-epoch data from 2010 and 2012.
• 3D visualization and virtual reconstruction of historical structures based on the detailed point cloud data.

Strengths

• Covers five distinct Scottish World Heritage Sites, providing focused cultural heritage coverage.
• Data has a specified 0.5-meter resolution and a point density of 4 points per square meter.
• Includes multi-epoch data for the Heart of Neolithic Orkney area, captured in 2010 and 2018.

Limitations

• Description metadata is limited; actual data quality requires manual inspection after download.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• The license explicitly prohibits any commercial use of the data.

Provenance

Source

Fugro, captured for Historic Environment Scotland.

Collection Method

Airborne LiDAR survey.

Time Range

2010, 2012

Freshness

Data was captured in 2010 and 2012; last update date is unknown.

Geography

Five Scottish World Heritage Sites: Edinburgh Old and New Town, Heart of Neolithic Orkney, St Kilda, Antonine Wall, New Lanark.