Processing LiDAR data for QA/QC tasks in WhiteboxTools: WhiteboxTools Tutorials

In this video, I complete some LiDAR data processing using the LiDAR and Remote Sensing Extension from Whitebox Geospatial and the WhiteboxTools open core. Specially I used three tools, ColourizeBasedOnClass, ColourizeBasedOnPointReturns and LidarColourize. Both the ColourizeBasedOnClass and ColourizeBasedOnPointReturns tool require a software license - to either the LiDAR and Remote Sensing Extension or the General Toolset Extension from – Whitebox Geospatial. The LidarColourize tool is found in the WhiteboxTools open core. The ColourizeBasedOnClass (https://www.whiteboxgeo.com/manual/wbt_book/available_tools/lidar_tools.html) tool sets the RGB colour values of an input LiDAR point cloud based on the point classifications. This tool is helpful to preform QA/QC tasks such as determining certain LiDAR classes that are problematic (i.e., misclassification). The ColourizeBasedOnPointReturns (https://www.whiteboxgeo.com/manual/wbt_book/available_tools/lidar_tools.html#ColourizeBasedOnPointReturns) tool sets the RGB colour values of a LiDAR point cloud based on the point returns. It specifically renders only-return, first-return, intermediate-return, and last-return points in different colours, storing these data in the RGB colour data of the output LiDAR file. Colourizing a LiDAR point cloud is an important QA/QC task for a variety of applications, such as determining if there are areas of vegetation where there is insufficient coverage of ground points, perhaps due to acquisition of the data during leaf-on conditions. Lastly, the LidarColourize (https://www.whiteboxgeo.com/manual/wbt_book/available_tools/lidar_tools.html#LidarColourize) tool can be used to add red-green-blue (RGB) colour values to the points contained within an input LAS file, based on the pixel values of an overlapping input colour image. This tool is helpful to determine whether certain features that are present in the LiDAR data are also present in the imagery and vice versa. This can help determine the presence or absence of certain features such as parked cars in a parking lot. Read more about these LiDAR tools and all LiDAR tools in the WhiteboxTools User Manual (https://www.whiteboxgeo.com/manual/wbt_book/available_tools/lidar_tools.html). Some tools contained within this video, require a valid software license from Whitebox Geospatial; for more information visit our website https://www.whiteboxgeo.com/extension-pricing/. Please put any questions you have down below or visit our Google Group. Please like this video and subscribe to our YouTube channel for all news and updates. Check out this video and more tutorials on our website (https://www.whiteboxgeo.com/learning-resources/).