New USGS LiDAR Specification Released

The USGS National Geospatial Program has released the new USGS base LiDAR specifications that defines deliverables that will create nationally consistent LiDAR data acquisitions.

Some of the notable changes are:

• The project area will be defined as the LiDAR
acquisition project boundary plus a 100-meter
buffer.
• Applying the specification to the extent of the
defined project area.
• Updating and clarifying point classification
requirements.
• Changing the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) delivery
format to require GeoTIFF.
• Requiring the null value in a DEM to be a value of
‘-999999.’