Using regional-scale pre- and post Hurricane Katrina lidar for monitoring and modeling: Chapter 30

Hurricane Katrina was one of the largest natural disasters in U.S. history. Due to the sheer
size of the affected areas, an unprecedented regional analysis at very high resolution and
accuracy was needed to properly quantify and understand the effects of the hurricane and
the storm tide. Many disparate sources of lidar data were acquired and processed for
varying environmental reasons by pre- and post-Katrina projects. The datasets were in
several formats and projections and were processed to varying phases of completion, and as
a result the task of producing a seamless digital elevation dataset required a high level of
coordination, research, and revision. This completed integration allowed for regional-scale
storm surge modeling based on very high-resolution elevation information.