From the course: Foundations of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

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LiDAR: Creating a 3D model

LiDAR: Creating a 3D model - GIS Tutorial

From the course: Foundations of Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

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LiDAR: Creating a 3D model

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- Can GIS maps be 3D? Absolutely. There are 3D-based maps, and you can drape your own data over those base maps. The 3D part is nice for visualization, but it also lets us do analysis, like predicting which areas can be seen from the third floor of a building or figuring out the best location for a cell tower. Here's a 3D map of a village in Southern Belize. I'll show it to you in RTS Pro, a desktop GIS software. We could use this 3D data to figure out which areas are flat enough and have enough sun exposure for successful agriculture. Here's another of a river valley where a dam was recently built. These are basic maps with just the free elevation data that comes with the software. But there's a technology available now called light detection and ranging or LIDAR that allows for quick and relatively inexpensive collection of very high resolution elevation data. It can also collect the height of things sitting…

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