Automated planimetric quality control in high accuracy airborne laser scanning surveys

With the increasing point densities of airborne laser scanning surveys, the applications of the generated point clouds have evolved from the production of digital terrain models to 3D modelling of a wide variety of objects. Likewise in quality control procedures criteria for height accuracy are extended with measures to describe the planimetric accuracy. This paper introduces a measure for the potential accuracy of outlining objects in a point cloud. It describes how this accuracy can be verified with the use of ridge lines of gable roofs in strip overlaps. Because of the high accuracy of modern laser scanning surveys, the influence of roof tiles onto the estimation of ridge lines is explicitly modelled. New selection criteria are introduced that allow an automated, reliable and accurate extraction of ridge lines from point clouds. The applicability of the procedure is demonstrated in a pilot project in an area covering 100,000 ha with around 20 billion points.