When natural disasters occur, one of the more pressing needs of disaster recovery teams is access to trust-worthy, pre-event data. Typical needs are for recent aerial images and elevation data, preferably orthoimages and LIDAR data. It can be difficult to find sources for this data, sources that can be easily accessed from any location, trust worthy with respect to data integrity and accuracy, and which provide a simple, straightforward interface to extract and deliver data to local computers for processing. GetLidar.com provides such an access point for data relevant to the areas in Florida, Texas and Puerto Rico heavily damaged by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria.
GetLidar.com provides free and direct access to pre-event imagery and LIDAR data including:
- LIDAR data in both American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) LAS format as well as compressed LAZ format.
- 50 cm orthophotography in US Geologic Survey (USGS) quarter quad format for the Harris county area, provided by the Texas Natural Resources Information System (TNRIS). Collected on behalf of the Houston-Galveston Area Council (H-GAC)
- 2004 USACE LIDAR and 2015 National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) NGS Topobathy LIDAR data in LAS or LAZ format from NOAA for Puerto Rico.
- US Department of Agriculture National Aerial Imagery Program (NAIP) for all areas
- Landsat 8 data for all areas
Read the complete article here: GetLidar for Hurricane Recovery