- Can I Download Large Areas Of LiDAR Data?
- How Can I Access The Current LiDAR Capture Programme?
- How Do I Use LIDAR Data / I Can't Open The LiDAR Files I Download?
- Is There Any Data Available In My Area Of Interest (AOI)?
- LiDAR Data - ASCII To GeoTiffs
- What Is The Point Density Considered In Your LiDAR Programme?
- What Is The Vertical Accuracy Of Your LIDAR Data?
- What Projection Information Is Used?
- When / Where Will You Be Surveying LiDAR Data?
- Where Can I Get Metadata For The LiDAR Data?
- Where Can I Get Scottish LiDAR Data?
- Where Can I View / Download The Metadata For All LiDAR Products?
- Where Can I View The LiDAR Data?
- Where Do You Have Data / What Is The Data Coverage For Your Products?
- Why are coverage metadata files in the LiDAR Composite and SurfZone DEM Survey download zip files no longer available as a Shapefile?
How Do I Use LIDAR Data / I Can't Open The LiDAR Files I Download?
Created: 26 July 2018 Updated: 31 January 2023
LiDAR data is a technical dataset and will need specialist Geographic Information System (GIS) software in order to open it.
If you do not already have GIS software then you may wish to consider using QGIS, which is free to download and there is plenty of documentation available on the internet -https://www.qgis.org/en/site/forusers/download.html
More information can be found in these external links:
GRASS GIS is built into QGIS and has various tools for working with DEMs https://grass.osgeo.org/documentation/
Terrain analysis: https://docs.qgis.org/2.8/en/docs/training_manual/rasters/terrain_analysis.html
3d terrain visualisation in QGIS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KrCsbP0kUs
More information including useful links to blogs on how to use LiDAR data can be found here:
https://experience.arcgis.com/experience/753ad2ebd3554fa696885b8c366c3049
If you just wish to view images of the data, you can do this via the “preview” feature for each of the LiDAR Composite data layer on the following page Defra Data Services Platform.