OREGON LIDAR CONSORTIUM: A SUCCESSFUL MODEL FOR ACQUIRING AND SHARING LIDAR

The Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (DOGAMI) has been supervising and coordinating the collection of large swaths of high resolution, high accuracy lidar data in the Pacific Northwest since 2006. In 2007, the Oregon legislature designated DOGAMI as the lead agency for lidar acquisition in Oregon. DOGAMI established the Oregon Lidar Consortium (OLC), to develop cooperative agreements for lidar collection. The consortium model for lidar collection leverages funding from multiple project partners to cost-effectively obtain lidar data, which is ultimately made available to the public. To-date, the OLC has had more than 70 project partners and collected more than 45,000 sq. miles of lidar data, covering 95 percent of Oregon’s populated areas.

High resolution lidar data has a wide range of uses in forestry, agriculture, geology, and engineering. Since 2006, DOGAMI has been utilizing lidar data to conduct geologic hazard and resource mapping for an accurate and vastly improved understanding of floods, landslides, tsunami, coastal erosion and geology within Oregon. DOGAMI is currently working with OLC partners to implement an on-demand data sharing model to provide streaming access to the data sets produced by the OLC. Improving access to OLC data is an ongoing priority, with the goal of reaching a wider audience who will incorporate lidar into their daily business needs and expand applications through further research and development of novel environmental analysis techniques. Stewardship of this massive database (60 TBs) presents challenges that DOGAMI aims to overcome through technical innovation and partner collaboration.