Airborne Scanning

The Vienna Laser Scanning Survey 2007
The capital of Austria digitized at an average of 20 points per square meter. 01.02.2009

The necessity of highly accurate and highly detailed spatial data as a base for efficient city planning increases with the rising demand of new properties for the constantly growing city population. Also the stocktaking of valuable historic buildings, controlling the adherence to construction regulations, and the development of evacuation plans in case of catastrophes require geo-referenced survey data of exceptional high resolution and accuracy.
An evenly distributed point pattern of 8-9 points per square meter acquired with a "full waveform" laser scanner covering 454 square kilometres of the federal state of Vienna with a demanded accuracy of 30 cm standard deviation was requested in an official tender notice.
Diamond Airborne Sensing, a subsidiary of the Austrian aircraft manufacturer Diamond Aircraft Industries and provider of the first completely integrated and fully EASA-certified surveying aircraft equipped with the RIEGL airborne laser scanning system BP560, seized the opportunity and participated in the competition for the contract.
The data acquisition was successfully carried out in early spring 2007. A total of 80 flying hours were necessary to cover the complete region. The final result, an amount of about 10 billion measured points, impresses with an average point density of 20 points per square meter on approximately three quarters of the whole area, the remaining area is covered with a point density according to the requested specifications. The position accuracy of the scan data was determined to be better than 11 cm standard deviation.