How can you use drone LiDAR in your golf course design?

LiDAR and laser scanning have been around for quite a while.  Coupling this technology with a state-of-the-art drone opens the possibility to get much-needed and highly ACCURATE data.

Whether starting your course from an undeveloped lot or renovating a current course for your client, drone LiDAR is a dream for and golf course architect/engineer.  Drone LiDAR flies a mission over the property and scans the terrain with millions of laser points.  With these points referred to as a “Point Cloud”, we can create a highly accurate model of the terrain and its features. The LiDAR can even collect topographic data through dense trees and vegetation. 

This data is extremely useful to sight surveyors and engineers. Each of the laser points is georeferenced and has an XYZ coordinate. Many different software like Carlson Point Cloud, may quickly and accurately compute earthmoving volumes for a bunker, a green, a lake, a full golf hole, or even the entire site, with or without "swell and shrink factors," by comparing the actual contours with the planned contours. For a single golf hole, manually calculating these numbers would likely take a whole day. It will inform you of how much digging or filling is necessary to get the required figures, as well as how much and where you need to cut or fill. You can get a 3-D simulation of the projected topography, the cut-and-fill procedure, and the current topography. That means, before a single tree is cut, it can be determined whether or not the creek will be visible from the back tee, whether the green-side bunker can actually be seen from the landing area's left side, and even how much of the hillside needs to be removed to allow for a clear view of the landing area from the tee.  

Did I mention that the process is quick? Most golf courses (+-300 acres) can be scanned in one day.  Topography can be extracted within 3 days and planimetric data of the current features of the course like cart paths, bunkers, and tee boxes so much more can be delivered in as little as 7 days.

If you would like to incorporate drone LiDAR into your next project, please reach out. We are happy to work with your site surveyors and engineers to get you that much-needed data.  We are located in New Jersey and travel nationwide.