Took me 4 tries to admit LIDAR is better than ground survey in thick woods near Olympia

I used to insist on traditional walkover survey for everything around the Pacific Northwest because that's how my mentor taught me. But after spending 3 days fighting through salal and ferns to map a site near the Skokomish River, I finally let a friend run his drone with the LIDAR unit. The results showed 8 possible house pits we completely missed on the ground. Has anyone else found themselves stubborn about old methods only to get humbled by new tech?

3 comments

3 Comments

henry1504d ago

You said "Took me 4 tries to admit LIDAR is better than ground survey" but it's not really about admitting one is better than the other. LIDAR still needs ground truthing to verify what it picks up, especially in thick woods where canopy cover can mess with the readings. I've had sites near the upper Cowlitz where LIDAR showed clear features that turned out to be just root wads and elk trails when we walked them.

milesbarnes4d ago

The whole LIDAR vs ground survey thing reminds me of people who swear by GPS but still carry a paper map as backup. Every tool has its blind spots and you gotta know what they are before you trust it completely. That Cowlitz story is a perfect example, the tech showed you something that looked right but the ground told the real story. Its like how people trust their phone maps so much theyll drive into a lake, but the real world always wins in the end.

sandragrant4d ago

Yeah @henry150's right, ground truthing is definitely still key, just wouldn't go back to pure walkover for prospecting.