Effects of LiDAR data reduction and breaklines on the accuracy of digital elevation model

Abstract

This paper explores the effects of LiDAR data reduction on the accuracies of produced TINs and gridded DEMs. It examined to what extent a set of LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data can be reduced without sacrificing the accuracy of produced terrain model. A primary focus was on the integration of breaklines to the reduction process to assess the contribution of breaklines to improving the accuracy of terrain models in data reduction. A series of TINs and gridded DEMs were produced and assessed at reduced data density levels with and without breaklines respectively. The results showed that LiDAR data can be reduced to a certain level without significantly decreasing the accuracy of produced terrain models. When incorporating breaklines into terrain modelling, the accuracy of produced TINs and gridded DEMs decreased only slightly as data density decreased, indicating that breaklines made a significant contribution to improving the accuracy of terrain models in data reduction.