LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data has been collected for all of New Brunswick between 2015 and 2018. LiDAR is collected with special sensors mounted in an airplane. While the airplane flies over the province, the sensor sends out light particles that bounce off the surface below including the bare ground, roads, trees, or whatever they hit, and return to the sensor.
LiDAR
The sensor is then able to determine the exact location of the light particle when it returns, many millions of these points form what is called a point cloud that can be used to describe, in great detail, the canopy of a forest, the bare ground beneath the forest, and any layers of vegetation in between. This detail has allowed the Department of Natural Resources and Energy Development (DNRED) to build products that describe the landscape in a detail never done before. It also allows foresters at DNRED to describe the forests with accurate descriptions of height and density that can be used to derive other important measures for sustainable forest management such as tree diameter and volume.
LiDAR point cloud.
The New Brunswick Lidar acquisition schedule 2013 – 2020.