Creating a geographic footprint from LIDAR data in ArcGIS

LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), like radar, is an active remote sensing system. This technology involves the use of pulses of laser light directed toward the ground and measures the time of pulse return. The return time for each pulse, back to the sensor is processed to calculate the variable distance between the sensors and the various surfaces present on the ground. The project is to create a geographic footprint from LIDAR data, using Microsoft Visual Basic for Application (VBA) and ArcGIS. VBA is an across product language that allows users to create complex and fully functional applications. The problem at hand was to find the line beginning and the line end of each scan line and mark those points to extract the polygon outline. The maximum and minimum points, which will declare the left or right outermost points of the sample image, were found. These x and y connecting points cannot have openings or dangling lines when being shaped into a polygon. In order to avoid unwanted shapes, the programs used to arrange points to draw a polygon of the selected data were written. VBA was used to write the program codes and then the codes were integrated with ArcGIS software. This paper demonstrates specific examples regarding the creation of geographic footprint from LIDAR data in ArcGIS. The end product of the project can be useful for anyone working with LIDAR data