Airborne LiDAR Methods Applied to Riverine Environments - Fluvial Remote Sensing for Science and Management - page 145

instruments provide a sub-meter horizontal geolocation
for each EAARL laser sample (Wright and Brock, 2002;
Nayegandhi et al., 2006; Nayegandhi et al., 2009). The
system is capable of storing the entire time series of
backscattered laser intensity or waveforms reflected from
targets using an array of four high-speed waveform digitis-
ers connected to four sub-nanosecond photo-detectors.
The photo-detectors vary in sensitivity, with the most
sensitive channel receiving 90% of the reflected photons,
the middle channel receiving 9%, and the least sensitive
channel receiving 0.9%. A fourth channel is also avail-
able for Raman or infrared backscatter. This range in the
detector's sensitivities is important because targets along a
flight path can vary in physical and optical characteristics,
influencing the intensity and structure of the reflected
laser intensity.

7.3.3 AirborneLiDARcapacities forfluvial
monitoring: asynthesis

Table 7.2 summarises the use of Airborne LiDAR (bathy-
metric or topographic), using a narrow footprint (NFP)
or large footprint (LFP) system for fluvial monitoring,
which can be found in the international literature up to
mid-2010.

7.4 LiDAR survey design for rivers

7.4.1 Flightplanningandoptimising
systemdesign
Planning a LiDAR survey over rivers for bathymetry
or topography requires the use of GPS ground-control

Table 7.2 Fluvial properties surveyed from airborne LiDAR.

Fluvial Property Surveyed River LiDAR Type LiDAR Reference

Area (km 2 ) or Density

Length (km)

River bottom
elevation

Gardon, FR (2 km) LFP Bathymetric high Bailly et al., 2010

Stream habitat Bear Valley Creek,

USA (10 km)

NFP Bathymetric high McKean et al.,

2008

Channel
morphological
features

Bear Valley Creek,
USA (10 km)

NFP Bathymetric high McKean et al.,

2008

Yakima River, USA
(10 km)

LFP Bathymetric high Millar et al., 2005

Riparian area
delineation

? (10 km) NFP Bathymetric high McKean et al.,

2008

Bathymetry Platte River, USA

(16 km)

NFP Bathymetric high Kinzel et al., 2007

Yakima and Trinity
Rivers, USA

LFP Bathymetric high Hilldale and Raff,

2008

Channel, levee
delineation,
colluvial hillslope
and fan deposits

Dijle and Ambleve
catchments, FR
(1,900 km 2 )

NFP Topographic low Notebaert et al.,

2009

Sediment movements Colorado River, USA

(4 km)

LFP Bathymetric high Millar et al., 2008

Floodplain hydraulic
friction

River Severn, UK
(6*6 km 2 )

NFP Topographic low Mason et al., 2003

Riverbed vegetation Saint-Laurent

estuary, CA
(1*3 km 2 )

LFP Bathymetric high Collin et al., 2010

Garonne, FR (2 km 2 ) Riparian vegetation

discrimination

NFP Topographic high Antonarakis et al.,

2008