USGS commissions statewide Quality Level 1 lidar for Mississippi

USGS awarded Dewberry a $12-million, three-year project to produce statewide Quality Level 1 lidar for Mississippi. Acquisition, processing and delivery are underway, with deep learning supporting hydrographic breakline collection.

The completed dataset will provide elevation information for agencies managing flood risk, coastal resilience and infrastructure development. Monitoring water levels and canopy penetration addresses data-quality challenges in the state's riverine, coastal and densely vegetated terrain.

USGS has commissioned Dewberry to acquire and process Quality Level 1 topographic lidar across Mississippi under its Geospatial Products and Services Contract. The $12-million effort covers approximately 48,000 square miles over three years and supports the national 3D Elevation Program. Acquisition, processing and delivery are already underway. Dewberry says the work will produce point densities exceeding eight points per square meter. The technical challenge is maintaining data quality across coastal and riverine environments with complex waterways and dense vegetation. The team is monitoring water levels with river gauges, checking vegetation conditions and assessing canopy penetration in the point cloud. It is also applying deep-learning models to lidar-derived surfaces and intensity imagery to collect hydrographic breaklines, which represent waterbody boundaries in elevation models. Once complete, the statewide dataset is intended to support flood mitigation, coastal resilience, emergency management and infrastructure development; the announcement does not establish measured improvements in those applications.

Evidence supplied by Dewberry.