The USGS and partners launch World Lidar Day Feb. 12 at Geo Week Conference in Denver
New annual celebration will spotlight the value of lidar and its applications worldwide.
The first World Lidar Day, which will celebrate lidar and its expanding applications each year on Feb. 12, will be held this Monday. Its debut will coincide with Geo Week, one of the world’s largest geospatial conferences, which starts Sunday in Denver, Colo.
World Lidar Day was founded by a group of public agency and private industry representatives working collaboratively to raise awareness about the value of lidar. Lidar, or light detection and ranging, is a remote sensing technology that uses the rebound time of pulses of light to determine the distance to an object’s surface and hence its shape. Lidar data are collected via air, land, and sea vessels at varying resolutions to model the elevation of the natural and built environment, whether on land or underwater.
High-resolution lidar data are made available to the public – including on some smartphones – to address worldwide needs. Its many uses include coastal zone management and resilience, emergency response, disaster mitigation, flood-risk management, forestry management, water supply and quality management, infrastructure and construction management, transportation planning and autonomous vehicles, aviation navigation and safety, wildlife and habitat management, invasive species mitigation, critical mineral mapping and mining, agriculture and precision farming, and natural resources conservation.
Due to its evolving benefits, ongoing returns on investment, and consistent increase in demand, the value of the global lidar market reportedly reached \$2.6 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to more than \$12 billion by 2032.
Founding members of World Lidar Day include the U.S. Geological Survey, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Geodetic Survey, American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, National Society of Professional Surveyors, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Joint Airborne Lidar Bathymetry Technical Center of Expertise, U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation, Woolpert, Hexagon, RIEGL, Teledyne Optech, and LIDAR Magazine.
The founding members’ intention with World Lidar Day is not only to promote awareness of the technology but to develop an annual platform for learning and collaboration. Any organization that develops or utilizes lidar is encouraged to share and promote the value of lidar on Feb. 12.
For more information, visit lidarday.com.
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