Lidar Survey of Barrier Islands in Alabama and Louisiana, 2013

July 12-14, 2013 lidar elevation data for Dauphin Island, Alabama, and Chandeleur, Stake, Grand Gosier and Breton Islands, Louisiana. The dataset includes classified point cloud data in LAS format and bare earth digital elevation models in IMG format, collected by Photo Science, Inc. under contract for the U.S. Geological Survey. The survey was acquired to document short- and long-term changes in barrier island systems.

Use Cases

• Modeling coastal erosion and dune migration based on high-resolution topographic data.
• Assessing storm impact and recovery on barrier island beaches and berms.
• Monitoring changes from human restoration activities using time-series elevation comparisons.
• Creating baseline elevation models for sea-level rise studies.

Strengths

• Data acquired at a horizontal spacing of 1 meter or less, indicating high spatial resolution.
• Vertical accuracy assessed with a calculated RMSEz of 0.012 m and a checked RMSEz of 0.073 m, meeting the project specification of 0.0925 m or less.
• Includes both raw point cloud data and processed bare earth digital elevation models.

Limitations

• Last updated 2013-07-14 23:59:59.999000; freshness should be verified.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.

Provenance

Source

U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), collected and processed by Photo Science, Inc.

Collection Method

Airborne lidar survey and ground control surveys for accuracy assessment.

Time Range

July 12-14, 2013 (data collection), with ground surveys July 14–23, 2013.

Freshness

Last updated 2013-07-14 23:59:59.999000

Geography

Dauphin Island, Alabama, and Chandeleur, Stake, Grand Gosier and Breton Islands, Louisiana, USA.