Quantifying Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Quality-Control Measures: A Case Study in Frio River, Texas

Airborne Lidar Bathymetry (ALB) is an advanced and effective technology for mapping water bodies and measuring water depth in relatively shallow inland and coastal zones. The concept of using light beams to detect and traverse water bodies has been around since the 1960s; however, its popularity has increased significantly in recent years with the advent of relatively affordable hardware, supplemented with potent software applications to process and analyze resulting data. To achieve the most accurate final product, which is usually a digital elevation model (DEM) of the bottom of a water body, various quality-control (QC) measures are applied during and after an airborne mission. River surveys, in particular, present various challenges, and quantifying the quality of the end product requires supplemental surveys and careful analysis of all data sets. In this article, we discuss a recent ALB survey of the Frio River in Texas and summarize the findings of all QC measures conducted. We conclude the article with suggestions for successful ALB deployments at similar survey locations.