Time series of lidar data, acquired over the past decade along the North American East Coast, provide opportunities to gain new insights into 3D evolution of barrier islands and their beach and dune systems. GIS-based per grid cell statistics and map algebra was applied to time series of Digital Surface Models representing two sections of North Carolina barrier islands to quantify elevation change trends, map dynamic and stable locations, identify new and lost buildings, measure relative volume evolution in the beach and foredune systems and analyze shoreline dynamics. Results show a relatively small stable core in both study areas, with beaches and the ocean side of the dunes exhibiting systematic high rates of elevation loss while areas landward from the dunes increase slightly in elevation. Significant number of new homes have been built at locations with very small core surface elevation, and homes built within the shoreline dynamics band have already been lost. The raster-based methodology used in this study can be applied to perform similar analyses in other coastal areas where time series of lidar data are available.
Current laser scanning (Lidar, light detection and ranging) technologies span a wide range of survey extent and resolutions, from regional airborne Lidar mapping and terrestrial Lidar fi eld surveys to laboratory systems utilizing indoor three-dimensional (3D) laser scanners. Proliferation in Lidar technology and data collection enables new approaches for monitoring and analysis of landscape evolution. For example, repeat Lidar surveys that generate a time series of point cloud data provide an opportunity to transition from traditional, static representations of topography to terrain abstraction as a 3D dynamic layer. Three case studies are presented to illustrate novel techniques for landscape evolution analysis based on time series of Lidar data: (1) application of multiyear airborne Lidar surveys to a study of a dynamic coastal region, where the change is driven by eolian sediment transport, waveinduced beach erosion, and human intervention; (2) monitoring of vegetation growth and the impact of landscape structure on overland fl ow in an agricultural fi eld using terrestrial laser scanning; and (3) investigation of landscape design impacts on overland water fl ow and other physical processes using a tangible geospatial modeling system. The presented studies demonstrate new insights into landscape evolution in different environments that can be gained from Lidar scanning spanning 1.0-0.001 m resolutions with geographic information system analysis capabilities.
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