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| National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping | |
|---|---|
| Name | National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping |
| Formation | 2000s |
| Headquarters | University of Houston |
| Region served | United States |
| Leader title | Director |
| Parent organization | University of Houston; National Science Foundation |
National Center for Airborne Laser Mapping is a research center specializing in airborne lidar mapping, remote sensing, and geospatial analysis. The center conducts airborne campaigns across the Americas and collaborates with academic institutions, federal agencies, and international partners to map archaeological sites, floodplains, and urban environments. Its work supports initiatives by agencies such as National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and Smithsonian Institution while informing projects associated with UNESCO, World Monuments Fund, and regional governments.
The center was established in the early 2000s with support from the National Science Foundation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the University of Houston to advance airborne lidar technology for scientific research. Founding activities linked researchers from University of Texas at Austin, Tulane University, Pennsylvania State University, University of Calgary, and Arizona State University to field campaigns in collaboration with cultural heritage organizations like the Peabody Museum and the Institute of Archaeology (UCL). Early projects integrated methods developed by teams associated with Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and the US Geological Survey to map sites impacted by events such as Hurricane Katrina and floods in the Mississippi River basin. Subsequent expansion brought partnerships with international bodies including Ministry of Culture (Peru), Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (Mexico), and the Bolivian Institute of Archaeology.
The center's mission emphasizes high-resolution topographic mapping to support research in archaeology, geomorphology, and hazard mitigation through collaborations with National Aeronautics and Space Administration, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Geological Survey, Smithsonian Institution, and regional universities. Objectives include advancing airborne lidar technology alongside groups like Leica Geosystems, Riegl, Optech, and Trimble; developing processing workflows in cooperation with ESRI, Autodesk, QGIS, and MATLAB communities; and training practitioners from institutions such as Brown University, Harvard University, Yale University, and Columbia University. The center aims to inform policy and conservation efforts involving entities like UNESCO, World Bank, Inter-American Development Bank, and national ministries of culture.
The center deploys aircraft platforms operated by partners including Texas A&M University, University of Florida, NASA Langley Research Center, and private operators collaborating with manufacturers such as Beechcraft, Cessna, and Pilatus. Sensor suites have featured lidar systems from Leica Geosystems, Riegl, Optech, and integrated multispectral imagers by MicaSense and hyperspectral systems by Headwall Photonics. Navigation and positioning use Trimble GNSS receivers and inertial measurement units developed by Honeywell and Sensonor, with processing supported by software from Leica Geosystems and open-source toolsets used by teams at University of California, Berkeley, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of Arizona.
Acquisition campaigns comply with protocols developed in collaboration with US Geological Survey, Federal Emergency Management Agency, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and international partners such as UNESCO and IUCN. Raw point clouds are processed using workflows influenced by research from University of Texas at Austin, Pennsylvania State University, University of Copenhagen, and ETH Zurich, employing tools from LAStools, PDAL, CloudCompare, and proprietary systems used by ESRI and Trimble. Quality assurance references standards promulgated by Open Geospatial Consortium and best practices taught in courses at Stanford University, Imperial College London, and University College London.
Major campaigns include lidar mapping of Maya sites in collaboration with Instituto de Antropología e Historia (Guatemala), archaeological surveys in the Bolivian Amazon with teams from University of Harvard, floodplain studies in the Mississippi River basin alongside US Geological Survey, and post-disaster mapping following Hurricane Katrina with FEMA and NOAA. Other case studies encompassed urban topography mapping for cities such as Houston, New Orleans, San Francisco, and Mexico City to support resilience projects with World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank. Heritage-focused work involved partners like the Smithsonian Institution, British Museum, and Getty Conservation Institute.
The center sustains partnerships with academic institutions including University of Houston, University of Texas at Austin, Tulane University, Pennsylvania State University, Arizona State University, and University of Florida; federal agencies such as NASA, NOAA, USGS, and FEMA; and international organizations like UNESCO, World Bank, and IUCN. Industry collaborators include Leica Geosystems, Riegl, Optech, Trimble, and ESRI, while research networks involve American Geophysical Union, Society for American Archaeology, International Association for Mathematical Geosciences, and the Open Geospatial Consortium. Field projects have partnered with national ministries including Ministry of Culture (Peru), Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (Mexico), and regional universities such as Universidad de San Andrés and Universidad del Valle.
Training programs and workshops have been run jointly with Society for Historical Archaeology, Society for American Archaeology, American Association of Geographers, and university departments at Harvard University, Stanford University, University of Cambridge, and University of Oxford. The center's staff contribute to peer-reviewed journals including Journal of Archaeological Science, Remote Sensing of Environment, IEEE Transactions on Geoscience and Remote Sensing, and Geomorphology, and present at conferences such as the American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, European Geosciences Union General Assembly, and meetings of the International LiDAR Mapping Forum. Outreach includes data sharing with repositories used by Digital Archaeological Record, OpenTopography, and institutional collections at the Smithsonian Institution.
Category:Remote sensing organizations Category:Archaeological organizations Category:Geospatial organizations