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Indiana 3DEP Lidar Acquisition Block Dates [Indiana]
IndianaMap · 2025 Full Details
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Full Details
- Title
- Indiana 3DEP Lidar Acquisition Block Dates [Indiana]
- Description
- Applications of Lidar Data The State of Indiana has a variety of requirements for high quality elevation data. QL2 Lidar is utilized for mission critical activities at all levels of government, academia and private organizations and provides significant cost savings related to utilizing Lidar as a resource. Some of the major use cases identified include: Floodplain Mapping, Modeling and Management Surface and Ground Water Quality Assessments and Management Environmental and Disaster Informatics Surveying, Engineering, Transportation and Construction projects Homeland Security and Disaster Response Geologic Mapping Renewable Energy Coastal Zone and Maritime Management, Navigation and Safety Aviation Navigation and Safety Military applications Acquisition of 3DEP QL2 Lidar in Indiana 3DEP acquisition of QL2 Lidar for the State of Indiana began in spring of 2016 and was completed in the spring of 2020, with the final data delivered in December 2020. This acquisition was accomplished through the following USGS 3DEP BAA initiatives: In 2015 the Indiana Geographic Information Council (IGIC) submitted a 3DEP BAA proposal to the USGS in partnership with 3 Indiana Counties (Marion, Hamilton and Wayne) to support the acquisition of new Quality Level 2 Lidar data products. This grant was awarded in 2016 and this project was completed in 2019. In 2016 the Indiana Geographic Information Council (IGIC) submitted a 3DEP BAA proposal to the USGS in partnership with the Indiana office of the USDA - Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) to acquire new Quality Level 2 Lidar data products for 12 Indiana Counties in northeast Indiana. This proposal was selected by the USGS, but before this agreement was finalized the Indiana NRCS office was able to allocate additional funds (totaling $6.625 million), and along with additional 3DEP Federal Funds from the USGS, the original BAA proposal was expanded to collect new 3DEP Lidar data products for all remaining 89 counties in Indiana. This USGS grant was awarded to NRCS in 2017 and this project was completed in December 2020. Indiana 3DEP Lidar Base Products Include Lidar Tiles - individual tiles in LAS 1.4 Format (QL2 Lidar data consists of 2 laser pulses per meter spacing) DEM Tiles - individual tiles in IMG Format (Bare-Earth Hydro-Flattened Digital Elevation Model) Breaklines - GIS hydrography features (rivers and lake polygons) used to create Bare-Earth Hydro-Flattened DEM Intensity Data Tiles - individual tiles in TIF Format (2.5-foot pixel intensity image generated from the First Return Lidar Pulse recording of surface reflectance) DEM Mosaic - Merged countywide DEM mosaic file in IMG Format generated from #2 above County Delivery Tile Grid - GIS Shapefile showing all delivery tiles and their file names FGDC Metadata This new Lidar data is providing valuable and exciting new elevation products for Indiana that are twice as detailed and twice as accurate as Indiana's previous 2011 - 2013 statewide Lidar. With this accomplished, Indiana's statewide GIS elevation data efforts are now focused on enhanced distribution of this new data, the development of derivative products, and the collection of new bathymetry Lidar data for inland river and stream channels. Read below to learn more about Lidar and for more information on the status of Indiana's 3DEP Lidar initiatives. Mapping Indiana's 3DEP Lidar Collection Dates Indiana's Statewide 3DEP QL2 Lidar was collected in the spring over a five-year period (2016 - 2020) on a total of sixty-eight (68) different days. End-users of Indiana's Lidar data can read the FGDC metadata published for the Lidar data set you are using [here] to see the general collection date information, but reporting the detailed Lidar date information stored in the Lidar point cloud files* provides important more detailed date information. Also, by publishing a detailed map showing these statewide Lidar collection dates, this important information shares and conveys more easily. * The method used was adapted from the original work - Mapping Lidar Collection Dates from LAS/LAZ Points (wordpress.com) published on February 3, 2014 by Kirk Waters, physical scientist at the NOAA Office for Coastal Management. For Indiana we used a point thinning method to select and reformat the GPSTime information from each Lidar file and then map the results. Indiana Example: Returning a thinned sampling on Lidar Ground Points per Lidar file The GPSTime results for each file were combined, summarized and then mapped to show Lidar dates by collection year (for all 92 Indiana counties - see map above), and also by specific file collection dates (for all 41,648 individual files - see example below). An interactive Esri ArcGIS Online Story Map / App was then published to share this detailed date information [ here ] with all end-users.
- Creator
- IndianaMap
- Temporal Coverage
- Last Modified: 2025-08-13
- Date Issued
- 2025-08-13
- Rights
- LIMITATION OF WARRANTIES AND LIABILITY - This product is provided "AS IS", without any other warranties or conditions, expressed or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties for product quality, or suitability to a particular purpose or use. The risk or liability resulting from the use of this product is assumed by the user. The Indiana Geographic Information Office, Indiana University, and The Polis Center at IUPUI share no liability with product users indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages whatsoever, including, but not limited to, loss of revenue or profit, lost or damaged data or other commercial or economic loss. The Indiana Geographic Information Office, Indiana University, and The Polis Center at IUPUI are not responsible for claims by a third party. The maximum aggregate liability to the original purchaser shall not exceed the amount paid by you for the product.
- Access Rights
- Public
- Format
- ArcGIS FeatureLayer
- Language
- English
- Date Added
- August 19, 2025
- Provenance Statement
- The metadata for this resource was last retrieved from IndianaMap on 2025-08-24.
Resource Class
Resource Type
Theme
Place
Local Collection
Cite and Reference
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Citation
IndianaMap (2025). Indiana 3DEP Lidar Acquisition Block Dates [Indiana]. . https://www.indianamap.org/datasets/INMap::indiana-3dep-lidar-acquisition-block-dates (web service) -
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