Data Sampling and GIS Analysis
To facilitate realizing end user applications, we additionally offer services in data sampling, GIS analysis, and modeling using the data we acquire. We can perform automated data sampling routines across generated LiDAR, thermal, or true-color images to provide robust databases used to analyze and model spatial patterns and processes of natural systems.
Change detection – LiDAR is an incredibly useful tool for evaluating active landform changes such as that resulting from volcanic activity or dam removal. The following example illustrates Mount St. Helens’ dome growth over a 20-day period in 2004.
Forest inventory – With multiple laser returns penetrating the canopy and ‘painting’ the vegetation, forest resources can be quantified and inventoried. Our data is structured for seamless integration into software used in forest inventory analysis.
Cross-sectional transect sampling – Sampled at user-defined intervals along a cross-sectional transect, features of interest in habitat analyses such as topography, elevation, slope, and vegetation height can be quantified and visualized at multiple spatial scales.
Landslide evaluation – Geomorphic landforms and processes such as landslides can be quantified with immense precision for predictive modeling and hazard analysis.
Co-registered TIR and LiDAR – The combination of LiDAR-derived surfaces and thermal data enables spatially-explicit evaluations of, for example, the relationship between geomorphology and surface hot springs or between stream temperature and delineated active and paleo channels, revealing elusive processes such as probable hyporheic flow and ground-water discharge.