Historic Environment Division Lidar: Northern Ireland Archaeological Landscapes

Historic Environment Division (HED) Lidar data consists of airborne laser scanning surveys conducted from 2008 to 2014 to assist with the interpretation and protection of archaeological landscapes in Northern Ireland. The data covers approximately 130 square kilometers across 39 sites and is provided as digital surface models (DSM) and digital terrain models (DTM) with ground features like buildings and vegetation removed. The laser scanning technique provides high vertical accuracy of 0.5cm, enabling the identification of subtle topographic traces of archaeological features.

Use Cases

• Identifying subtle archaeological features based on high-resolution topographic data.
• Creating accurate digital terrain models for landscape analysis with vegetation and buildings removed.
• Conducting large-area archaeological survey using the 130 square kilometer coverage.
• Analyzing landscape change over time using data from the 2008-2014 collection period.

Strengths

• High vertical accuracy of 0.5cm for precise topographic modeling.
• Covers a substantial area of approximately 130 square kilometers across 39 distinct sites.
• Provides both digital surface models and processed digital terrain models with non-ground features removed.

Limitations

• Metadata completeness is low; specific column names, file sizes, and row counts are unknown.
• The data is provided 'as is' and is not supported by the publisher.
• Collection dates are inconsistently reported across entries (e.g., 2009 vs. 2014), creating ambiguity for specific datasets.

Provenance

Source

Historic Environment Division (HED), Northern Ireland, published via OpenDataNI.

Collection Method

Airborne LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) / Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) from aircraft.

Time Range

2008 to 2014

Freshness

Last updated metadata dates from 2026-07-08, but the underlying survey data was collected between 2008 and 2014.

Geography

Northern Ireland, specifically 39 archaeological landscape sites.