Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) data are composed of elevation measurements of the beach surface and are acquired through aerial topographic surveys. The file format used to capture the LIDAR beach mapping data is referred to as "x,y,z," where x is longitude, y is latitude, and z is elevation. Before you can look at the LIDAR beach mapping data in ArcView, you must first acquire a data set and then load the data set into ArcView.
The first step is to acquire a LIDAR beach mapping data set from one of two sources; BeachMapper is a software application provided on volume 2 of this CD-ROM set. This tool may only be used to download South Carolina LIDAR data in State Plane projection. For instructions on extracting LIDAR beach mapping data with the BeachMapper application, click here.
The other source for acquiring LIDAR beach mapping data is the Lidar Data Retrieval Tool (LDART). This is a web-based data selection tool that allows the user to pick a state, area of interest, and projection before downloading the LIDAR beach mapping data. For more information about LDART, click here.
Once you have your LIDAR data set, there are two options for loading it into an ArcView project. The first option is to use the LIDAR Loader ArcView Extension, a custom extension created for users to import LIDAR data sets directly into ArcView. The LIDAR Loader Extension automatically loads the x,y,z points into a table and displays them as a shapefile. For more information about the LIDAR Loader Extension, click here.
Another option for getting your LIDAR data into an ArcView project is to do it manually. Instructions for this procedure are outlined below.
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To begin, open a new ArcView Project and View. In the Project Window, highlight the Tables icon. To add x,y,z (longitude, latitude, elevation) LIDAR point data to the project, click the Add button. From the List Files of Type pull-down menu, choose Delimited Text (*.txt). Note: If you used the BeachMapper application to extract your data, your data will be stored on your hard drive. Scroll to the directory structure where the data is stored. Click on the desired file. Click OK. |
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The data table will appear in the project window. It may take quite a while for the text file to load, especially if you are working with data from a large region. You can now view the data, change the legend to be classified based on the elevation, or convert the data to another format. In the project window, highlight Views and activate your current view frame. From the menu bar, choose Add Event Theme from the View pull-down menu. The Add Event Theme window will appear. Choose the newly imported data table. For the x field, choose Easting (or longitude); for the y field, choose Northing (or latitude). Click OK. The data will appear as a theme in the view window. Click the theme on to view the data. |
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| In order to perform any queries or edits of the data, you will need to convert the text theme to a shapefile. Under Theme in the menu bar, choose Convert to shapefile. A new window will pop up; you can give the new shapefile a name or leave it at the default setting. Click OK. Choose Yes to add the shapefile to your view when the question box appears. | 
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This data set now can be integrated with other data sets in a geographic information system (GIS), such as vector coverages, orthophotography, and quadrangles. For instructions on creating contours with this LIDAR data set using the add-on Spatial Analyst® module, click here.
Now that you have accessed LIDAR data and included it in an ArcView project, you may want additional flexibility in how the data are displayed. Go to the Manipulating Legends in ArcView Tutorial to see how custom legends can be accessed and loaded through the Legend Editor. With Spatial Analyst, an add-on extension to ArcView, you can create contours, or add hillshading for a more visually intuitive display. For instructions on creating contours from LIDAR data using Spatial Analyst, click here.