How much aerial LiDAR acquisition really cost?

[Nick Pucino]

I am struggling to find publications that openly share monetary costs of LiDAR campaigns.

I am looking at monetary costs per unit distance.

As per processing, no processing. Just to lift the airplane and fly it along a coastline.

As per density, I have not enough knowledge about LiDAR typical densities, but the idea is to compare its monetary cost with modern UAV-based photogrammetry (SfM-MVS).

Please send through references too if you know any!

Cheers

Nick

[André Kunert]

It definitely depends, among other things, on the size of the area to be recorded, how far the base is from the pilot and in which country you are recording the data (keyword wage costs of the pilot). You can ask SwissFlight Aviation https://www.sfsaviation.ch/ or Milan https://www.milan-geoservice.de/. 

[Christopher Crosby]

USGS has published 3DEP average per square mile data collection costs for various lidar quality levels. Unfortunately the most current numbers I’ve seen are from 2015 in this report: 'Status of the 3D Elevation Program, 2015' - https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20161196 (see Table 1).

-cc

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Christopher Crosby
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[Jochen Bind]

As Andre correctly states, the size of area will be your defining factor. For smallish areas (a few hundred hectares), SfM from UAV will be more cost effective (however, it’s not going to give you “LiDAR”, i.e. ground penetration in dense vegetation). A big cost for aerial LiDAR is the cost of bringing the airplane (and/or LiDAR scanner) to the area of interest. Especially in countries like mine, New Zealand, where there are very few operators with even fewer bases, that’s a major part. If they double the area to fly, that often doesn’t push up the cost majorly – obviously depending on the overall size of the area flown.

 

Therefore, I don’t think you’ll get an easy answer for ‘cost per square km’. What size area are you interested in? And what type of UAV are you flying? Flying larger areas with UAV usually requires quite a bit of logistics with battery charging, moving along your reach, etc. Also, the shape of your area might be important. We generally work in river corridors or along coastlines (long and narrow), with often isn’t ideal for SfM campaigns which are best for more square shapes – it means that we often need to fly in less efficient manner to ensure enough coverage.

 

Hope this helps,

Jo

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[Nick Pucino]

Hi Christopher,

thanks a lot for the link to the report. That is what I need, approximate figures are ok.

Nick

Il giorno venerdì 8 maggio 2020 04:04:43 UTC+10, Chris Crosby ha scritto:

USGS has published 3DEP average per square mile data collection costs for various lidar quality levels. Unfortunately the most current numbers I’ve seen are from 2015 in this report: 'Status of the 3D Elevation Program, 2015' - https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20161196 (see Table 1).

-cc

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Christopher Crosby
Geodetic Imaging & OpenTopography Project Manager
UNAVCO, Inc. 6350 Nautilus Dr., Suite B/C, Boulder, CO 80301

303.381.7564 (o)  |  480.220.3200 (c)

cro...@unavco.org
http://www.unavco.org
http://opentopography.org

On May 6, 2020, at 4:56 PM, Nick Pucino <nicola...@gmail.com> wrote:

I am struggling to find publications that openly share monetary costs of LiDAR campaigns.

I am looking at monetary costs per unit distance.

As per processing, no processing. Just to lift the airplane and fly it along a coastline.

As per density, I have not enough knowledge about LiDAR typical densities, but the idea is to compare its monetary cost with modern UAV-based photogrammetry (SfM-MVS).

Please send through references too if you know any!

Cheers

Nick

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[Nick Pucino]

Hi Jo,

thx for your contribution!

we are mapping 14 beaches with different aerial extents (average of 500 ha) along the Victorian coastline (Australia) with Phantom 4 Pro every 4-6 weeks.

Considering the coastline stretches over almost 2000 km here in VIC, I just need a reference approximate cost from LiDAR, for one coastline pass.

Cheers

Nick 

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[Jorg Hacker]

Well mate, we surveyed at rather high resolution more than 3,500km of coastline (twice - which makes it 7,000km) along the whole coast of the Gulf of Carpentaria in Far North Queensland (about as remote as it gets in Australia). It took us 17 days (not flying  every day) and it cost around A$17/line-kilometre, including processing and total logistics costs (getting there from Adelaide etc) and including high-res RGB imagery (about 18,000 of them). Average width of the covered coastline was 300 to 400m, making the covered area somewhere near 3,000sqkm. A report describing the project including links to downloadable Dropbox files for most of the captured and processed data is available here: http://www.airborneresearch.com.au/MangroveDynamics/ARA_Lidar_Mangroves2017.html . I'd be most interested to learn what a drone survey of the same area would cost (including logistics such as getting there). You can also see our website for other examples. You will see there that we are using drone-like aerial platforms, but they carry a crew of two which makes the whole operation extremely cost-efficient.

Happy flying,

Jorg

[Ilkka Korpela]

Hi

The rule-of-thumb that applied in Finland still 3-5 years ago was:

- 3000€/hour of flying (includes postprocessing, be it image or lidar) at the site (pressurized plane, pilot + operator)
- 3000€/h for the mobilization flight

So, when I had campaigns with one hour of flying each way to reach the site + an hour of data acquisition, I'd pay bout 10k€. 

Now, with fewer companies (no competition anymore) - the costs are up by 50%. It is possible that post-processing
costs more with LiDAR these days as there are more bytes per second flying. 

I verified the values once with operational HansaLuftBild ag's (Germany) chief of photogrammetry. 
Fuel costs dominate.

BR Ilkka Korpela U Helsinki

[r.w...@aeromap.at]

Hi

 

We are operating an UL Aircraft with full automatic sensor system LIDAR(RIEGL)+2x PhaseOne(150
MP) on a gimbal – if you want to have a look: www.aeromap.at FMS handles everything

That way we dont need a operator which helps to reduce the costs.

 

In addition – to help the customer – which works well for us too – we dont charge sensor costs during approach and return – only pilot / Aircraft / planning .

 

Cost estimation mapping alone: ~ 500€/h + 1000€/h  (Aircraft + System)

 

This also changes with sensors: LIDAR and/or RGB and/or NIR

Note: the hardware (sensor+aircraft) cost should be calculated based on: totll cost, usage of System in years, estimated operation hours per year incl service, calibration etc. + operating costs/h

 

 

Processing Costs: strongly depends on the requirements for Aerial and lidar – hard to say like that

 

 

Direct ortho/ortho/true ortho; RGB and/or NIR

LIDAR: direct (single line..no ref), block adjustment + ref.., transects only…, classifcation classes…,

Fusion with imagery….etc

 

Its a little complex, a big xls helps me with that..

Also:

Important for us in the alps is a good risc assessment for mapping – based on experience – to estimate mapping stops and new approaches – to due bad weather conditions…

This will have a Impact on the pricing as well..

 

For larger projects (e.g. 3000km² ) in remote areas a proper cost estimation is real complex – it helps if you are familiar with the conditions, logistics etc.. and also the local price level...

 

Hope that helps a little..

 

Roland

 

 

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