Analysis of lidar's ability in wetland investigation - A case study in yellow river delta

This study assesses the contribution of LIDAR altimetry, multi-return and intensity information, and aerial photos to coastal wetland investigation. Aerial photos in this area work as reference data to assess the accuracy of the experiment. The performance of Lidar data resources was tested alone with the adaptive TIN algorithms to separate ground points. Multi-return information was employed to conduct vegetation extraction as Lidar can penetrate canopy and reach the ground. Intensity is also used to assist classification due to its variability on different objects. The result demonstrated that LIDAR can work as a fast and robust mean for detailed mapping of coastal wetland underlying terrain, investigation of the vegetation, and exploration of coastal area with different moisture. It provides more reliability in wetland mapping and classification compared with remote sensing images alone.