LIDAR SURVEY OF PO RIVER BASIN IN ITALY

In year 2000 CGR started to use Lidar systems to produce detailed Digital Terrain Models (DTMs) that covered the different areas of Italy. The DTMs were for example used for ortophoto production, flood simulation, geomorphologic studies, coastal surveys and modelling.

One of the most important and significant projects using Lidar systems has been the survey and the DTM calculation of the river Po. Po is the longest and most important river in Italy, and the project included flood simulation and modelling. The distance covered was about 540 km long, and the execution was divided into two different projects. The survey covered a total area of approximately 1 300 sq.km. 

The survey was executed with an Optech Lidar system at an altitude of 1 500 meters above ground and, in some areas, with a Toposys falcon system. The data collected were processed in order to obtain accurate 2x2 meter grid DSMs and DTMs and additional products like for example complete break lines vector structures of the most significant infrastructures in the area covered.

In 2005-06, along with part two of the project which covered the 340 km long lower part of the river, a bathymetric survey with a multibeam installed on a boat was carried out. This task was performed to produce an integrated model covering the land both inside and outside of the wet part of the river, and it covered a total surface of 736 sq km. The traditional orthophotos that were produced had a ground resolution of 20 cm, at the scale 1:2 000.

The products have been delivered to the National Authority for the Po river basin and forms the most important database available of the river.