Deliverables

Although users are mostly interested in the final bare-earth DEM from aLiDAR data set, it is important to define a list of deliverables that the vendor will provide from the onset of the survey. A kickoff meeting should be held prior to data acquisition to ensure that all project requirements and schedule are understood. Project partners should be invited to the kickoff meeting. Any concerns from the vendor or the project partners should be discussed during this meeting. Minutes from the meeting should be the first delivery of any LiDAR project. Following mobilization, the vendor must submit daily acquisition and field condition reports that provide an overview of the environment conditions during the time of survey. These reports are usually delivered via email during acquisition, but should be included as a summary in the acquisition report. Following acquisition and upon demobilization, the vendor should prepare an acquisition and calibration report that contains details on the acquisition, tidal considerations (if any), control points used, preliminary vertical accuracy assessment, and all GPS/IMU processing reports for each mission. Figure 1-12 shows a Table of Contents for a sample acquisition report.

A LiDAR project report must be delivered at the end of the processing along with the final delivered products. The project report serves as the master report for the entire project and includes detailed explanation on the processing and qualitative assessment performed on the data. The quantitative analysis and the accuracy results (NVA and VVA) must be clearly demonstrated and information on all survey points used for the accuracy analysis must be included. Breakline production procedures should be well defined including the production methodology, qualitative assessment and topology rules used for the project. A data dictionary defining the horizontal and vertical datum, coordinate system and projection used for this project and all breakline feature definitions for streams and rivers, and inland lakes and ponds should be clearly defined. The DEM production methodology and QA/QC assessment on the DEMs must be clearly explained. Often, the LiDAR acquisition report is included in this final project report so that one document provides the complete information on the entire life cycle of the project. Figure 1-13 illustrates a Table of Contents of a sample project report.

The list of deliverables must also include the LiDAR data and derivative products as required by the statement of work. Given the very large volume of data, these deliverables are typically requested on external hard drives. The following list of deliverables is usually requested during final delivery:

(1) One set of classified LAS files in accordance with the tiling schema noted in thestatement of work.

(2) One set of raster DEM’s (hydro flattened bare earth) delivered in the specified gridformat (for e.g., GeoTIFF or ESRI Raster Grid). The DEM’s must also be delivered in the project tiling and required naming schema.

(3) One set of 1-meter intensity imagery in GeoTIFF file format.

(4) One set of FGDC Metadata for each data deliverable.

(5) One ESRI file geodatabase containing the breakline data, if specified.

(6) Project report

Congratulations, you have completed the knowledge section of the course.

You may now complete the course by successfully passing the course quiz.