Lidar Elevation, Rice County, Minnesota, 2007

County-wide lidar (Light Detection And Ranging) DSM (digital surface model) data collection enhanced with hydrological breaklines and other enhancements where necessary via photogrammetric methods (stereo compiled) to derive a DTM (digital terrain model) accurate enough to support 2.0-foot contours.<br/><br/>The lidar data for Rice County was collected under contract by the county. Thus, the data format is not entirely consistent with some of the other lidar data collected by the State of Minnesota. Specifically, the Rice County collect required classification of only Bare Earth in the lidar LAS files, so there is no information on buildings, vegetation, or model key points.<br/><br/>Breaklines captured as part of this effort are also a bit different. In Rice County the breaklines are 3D Polyline features rather than 3D Polygon features. They also include road centerlines, stream courses and other features that are not part of the Statewide collect specifications.<br/><br/>This metadata record was created at the Minnesota Geospatial Information Office by combining information from Rice County, Aero-Metric (now Quantum Spatial), and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.