Adaptive Slope Filtering of Airborne LiDAR Data in Urban Areas for Digital Terrain Model (DTM) Generation

A filtering algorithm is proposed that accurately extracts ground data from airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) measurements and generates an estimated digital terrain model (DTM). The proposed algorithm utilizes planar surface features and connectivity with locally lowest points to improve the extraction of ground points (GPs). A slope parameter used in the proposed algorithm is updated after an initial estimation of the DTM, and thus local terrain information can be included. As a result, the proposed algorithm can extract GPs from areas where different degrees of slope variation are interspersed. Specifically, along roads and streets, GPs were extracted from urban areas, from hilly areas such as forests, and from flat area such as riverbanks. Validation using reference data showed that, compared with commercial filtering software, the proposed algorithm extracts GPs with higher accuracy. Therefore, the proposed filtering algorithm effectively generates DTMs, even for dense urban areas, from airborne LiDAR data.