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Picked LiDAR over manual surveying for a dig site and it was a game changer
Back in 2019, I had to choose between doing a traditional grid survey or renting a LiDAR drone for a small site in central Texas. The drone cost $1,200 for a weekend, which felt like a lot, but manual would've taken me two weeks with a crew. I went with LiDAR and it picked up a whole erased trail system the old maps missed. Has anyone else switched to newer tech and found stuff they would have walked right past?
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paule5323d ago
We rented ground-penetrating radar once and found a trash pit from the 1800s nobody knew was there.
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uma_baker9923d ago
Oh man, that LiDAR find sounds incredible. For me, it was using photogrammetry with a cheap drone I already had for a site in west Texas. The software was a pain to learn, but it basically built a 3D map from all the photos. I spotted these faint, low stone foundations in the computer model that were totally invisible on the ground, hidden by brush and years of erosion. So I didn't even have to spend extra on a rental, just a few weekends of flying and processing. Your mileage may vary on the software learning curve, but it really paid off for catching stuff I would have tripped over.
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