I want to know the total cost of acquiring and processing LiDAR elevation data. I have seen in many articles that the cost per miles is reduced with increase in surveyed area. Does the cost vary with locations in different parts of the world?
Thank You!
In the western United States in 2010, we had about 25 square miles acquired for a total of about $24k USD. The vendor did some processing of the data for us, like classifying returns as ground or nonground. After getting the data from the vendor, another 1 to 10k USD seems reasonable for processing (if the area isn't extremely large), and depends on 1) the amount of processing or analysis involved (simply creating a bare-earth digital terrain model doesn't take long, whereas using other returns, like vegetation returns, for more extensive analysis would take longer), 2) the area being processed (large datasets can take awhile to process on average workstations), and 3) the experience of the processor. I would imagine that acquisition price per square mile would decrease as the surveyed area increases (although cost to process would increase for larger areas), since from what I understand, a lot of the cost is getting the plane to the acquisition area. I've heard that cost can be reduced by planning acquisitions around other acquisitions. I don't know about other parts of the world.
In the western United States in 2010, we had about 25 square miles acquired for a total of about $24k USD. The vendor did some processing of the data for us, like classifying returns as ground or nonground. After getting the data from the vendor, another 1 to 10k USD seems reasonable for processing (if the area isn't extremely large), and depends on 1) the amount of processing or analysis involved (simply creating a bare-earth digital terrain model doesn't take long, whereas using other returns, like vegetation returns, for more extensive analysis would take longer), 2) the area being processed (large datasets can take awhile to process on average workstations), and 3) the experience of the processor. I would imagine that acquisition price per square mile would decrease as the surveyed area increases (although cost to process would increase for larger areas), since from what I understand, a lot of the cost is getting the plane to the acquisition area. I've heard that cost can be reduced by planning acquisitions around other acquisitions. I don't know about other parts of the world.
Today, the availability of UAVs + Automatic photogrammetry (structure from motion) is changing LIDAR prices.
You can write a detailed mail to NRSC describing your needs and you will get an estimated price.
http://bhuvan.nrsc.gov.in/bhuvan_links.php
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