Service / Aerial LiDAR

Aerial LiDAR mapping

A laser does not care about shadows, tree cover, or how much the site looks like every other acre of scrub. It measures what is there. We fly the boundary once and hand back a classified point cloud you can build a surface from.

Request a scope → See example data

01/The point

Elevation you can build on, not an impression of it.

Photogrammetry infers shape from overlapping pictures. Under a live oak canopy or a stand of planted pine, it infers the top of the trees. LiDAR sends a pulse and records every return it gets back, so the ground under the vegetation stays in the data. Then we classify it, and the bare earth comes out clean.

That is the whole reason we own the sensors we own. The Gulf Coast is canopy, wetland edge, sand, and built environment, often on the same parcel. One collection has to work on all of it.

What you get back

Classified LAS or LAZ point cloud
Bare earth DTM and full feature DSM
Contours at your interval, DWG or DXF
Breaklines and feature linework to CAD
Civil 3D surfaces ready to import
Colorized point cloud from the same flight
Cut and fill volumes with the arithmetic shown
Processing report with control and accuracy notes

02/Method

How the flight is planned

Boundary and datum first

You send the boundary and tell us the horizontal and vertical datum your project runs on. Everything downstream is set by that answer, so we settle it before the truck moves.

Ground control set and observed

Targets placed and observed on site so the cloud lands where your project lives, and so the vertical can be checked rather than assumed.

Flight parameters matched to the deliverable

Altitude, speed, line spacing and pulse settings are chosen for the contour interval and point density you actually need. Overflying a site costs you money and buys nothing.

Classification and QC

Ground, vegetation, building and low noise separated, then checked against control before anything ships. If the numbers do not hold, we go back before you ever see it.

Formats we deliver in

Deliverable	Formats
Point cloud	LAS, LAZ, E57, RCP
Surfaces	Civil 3D, LandXML, DTM, DEM
Contours and linework	DWG, DXF, DGN, SHP
Imagery	GeoTIFF, JPG
Reports	PDF

Typical applications

Vacant land topographic mapping
Corridor and right of way
Drainage and water flow
Earthwork volumes and stockpiles
Wetland and shoreline edges
Utility clearance
As built verification
Master planning base data

03/Proof

Data from delivered work.

Every image below came off a real collection. Nothing here is a stock render or a vendor sample.

LiDAR point cloud classified into ground and vegetation in LP360 — Ground and vegetation separated. The bare earth surface comes from the classified returns, not from a guess.

Colorized aerial LiDAR point cloud of a road corridor and surrounding vegetation — Corridor collection colorized from the same flight. Elevation and imagery agree because they were captured together.

Bare earth surface recovered beneath heavy canopy from aerial LiDAR — Canopy penetration. The orange surface is ground; the green is what photogrammetry alone would have handed you.

Full portfolio →

04/Who uses it

Where this work goes.

All industries →

05/Questions

Common questions.

How accurate is drone LiDAR compared to conventional ground survey?

It depends on the control, the sensor, the flight parameters and the surface. On open ground with observed control, a well flown collection is tight enough for design level topography, and we report the checks so you can see it rather than take our word. Where the tolerance is unforgiving, we plan denser control and say so before we fly. We deliver capture data. The certification stays with the licensed surveyor of record on your team, and we are glad to work under one.

Can you get bare earth under heavy tree cover?

Yes, that is the primary reason to fly LiDAR instead of photogrammetry. Pulse penetration through canopy is never one hundred percent, so density on the ground drops under the heaviest cover. We plan for it with slower lines and tighter spacing, and the processing report shows what the ground return density actually was.

What is the smallest site worth flying?

Mobilization is the fixed cost, so very small isolated sites are usually better bundled with something else nearby. If you have several parcels in one area, one trip covers all of them and the per site number drops sharply.

Do you handle airspace authorizations?

In house. Controlled airspace is routine on the Gulf Coast between the coastal fields and the military ranges, and the request goes in as part of planning, not the morning of the flight.

What formats can you deliver?

LAS, LAZ, E57 and RCP for point clouds. DWG, DXF, DGN and SHP for linework and contours. Civil 3D surfaces and LandXML for design. GeoTIFF for imagery. Tell us what your team opens and that is what arrives.

06/Related

Start with one site.

Send the boundary and the deliverable you need. We scope it, fly it, and return the data in your format, typically in under seven days.

Request a scope → See the portfolio

(727) 421-5779 [email protected]