International Journal of Environment and Geoinformatics (IJEGEO), vol.6, no.1, pp.22-32, 2019 (Peer-Reviewed Journal)
Airborne LIDAR technology which has an increasing importance in recent years, has entered into the field of application of many disciplines by obtaining fast and highly accurate 3D data. It provides precise topography information with dense point cloud data as well as all details on the surface. Thus, it has become useful in all disciplines associated with space such as cartography, construction, city planning, forest, energy, hydrology, geology, transportation, telecommunications, security, disaster, aviation, and infrastructure. By mounting LIDAR measurement units on aircraft large areas can be measured relatively quickly and cost-effectively. In this study, Riegl Q680i scanner and CCNS5 flight management system were mounted to the aircraft. The digital elevation models; DEM (Digital Elevation Model) and DSM (Digital Surface Model) of the Melen basin, which is located within the boundaries of Düzce and Sakarya was generated using LIDAR point cloud data (.las format) with a point density of 16 points/m2 and also 1/1000 base maps of the basin were produced. In addition, many details such as road, slope, culvert, electricity poles were drawn in accordance with the principles of large-scale map construction regulations and transferred to GIS environment. The Melen basin with an important water storage area, boundaries, basin model, water collection lines, determination of flow directions and connections, the topographic surface of the basin sub-areas, morphology were created using 3D laser point cloud data. So, the digital terrain model of the basin in GIS environment is visualized with linear maps. LIDAR data provides 3D geometric and morphological information that cannot be obtained according to classical methods in this kind of engineering studies. Results suggest that the higher spatial resolution LIDAR-derived data are preferable and can introduce more detailed information about basin hydro geomorphic behaviours.