When creating derived elevation rasters from lidar data, two raster datasets are typically required: the bare-earth digital terrain model (DTM) and the corresponding first-return digital surface model (DSM).
The most efficient way to make lidar data accessible to end users is to create these rasters, which reduce data volume, can be shared as image services, can quickly render the data in different ways, and can be used for surface analysis. The rasters from multiple projects can be shared with many users as a comprehensive yet maintainable image service (see Create mosaic datasets and serve the raster data). When required, references to the lidar source data can be maintained for users with specialized applications (see Share 3D point cloud files for user download).
To create derived elevation rasters, first determine the appropriate parameters to generate them from the data. Then, use a LAS dataset, a mosaic dataset, or a terrain dataset to generate the derived rasters. The options you choose depend on the availability of supporting data and your organization’s requirements for managing the bare-earth DTM. Finally, you can create mosaic datasets to manage the rasters, and serve them to your end users.
Note:
These workflows presume you have received lidar data in a LAS , zLAS, or LAZ format, but the data provider did not create the raster surfaces (DTM and DSM) before delivery. If the DTM and DSM already exist, you can proceed to Create mosaic datasets and serve the raster data.