Integrated Informatics Inc. has delivered a new set of tools to enable electric utilities using LIDAR, imagery, and GIS technologies to better support vegetation management and decision-making processes. This toolkit provides a user-friendly, streamlined workflow to process LIDAR and imagery datasets, and includes the following functionalities:
- Source Data Quality Assurance/Control
- Vegetation Classification
- Identification of encroaching vegetation and impeding foliage
- Visualize encroachments along corridors using auto-generated profiles
- Creation of 3D data, e.g. Digital Elevation Model, Hillshade
Senior GIS Consultant for Integrated Informatics, Mark Kennedy, said, "Electric utilities companies require vegetation management plans to remove and reduce the risk of vegetation encroachment along transmission right-of-ways. Traditional methods to identify areas requiring trimming and pruning are from visual inspections by ground or aerial surveys."
The LIDAR Toolkit from Integrated Informatics generates an output of GIS data that can be used for further analysis and planning. In addition, a set of profile and plan views are generated to provide the user with alternative perspectives of sections along the right-of-way.
The LIDAR Toolkit provides an efficient and effective methodology for reducing the risks of vegetation along utilities corridors, saving time and providing accurate results. Users can now input various parameters, which allow rule adaptation, as determined by industry standards.
