Data Management Plan

In July 2012, WSI (Watershed Sciences, Inc.) was contracted by the Puget Sound LiDARConsortium (PSLC) to collect Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data on a 5-yearcycle for the Nooksack River Basin LiDAR site in the Northwest Washington. Data werecollected to aid the Tribe in assessing the topographic and geophysical properties ofthe study area to support restoration efforts.

This data delivery and report covers the entire project area, including the portion ofthe Middle Fork Nooksack River which was delayed due to snow conditions. It describesthe LiDAR data and documents data acquisition procedures, processing methods, andresults of all accuracy assessments. The Nooksack River Basin project covers 116,490acres, collected January 12, 13 and 15, March 3, April 1, 3 and 15, & June 16 and 28in 2013. This dataset contains project deliveries 1 and 2, the average first-returndensity for the LiDAR data for the Nooksack River Basin LiDAR was 9.40 points/m2calculated to 0.328 nominal point/pulse spacing.

Process Steps:

• Planning.In preparation for data collection, WSI reviewed the project area using Google Earth,and flightlines were developed using a combination of specialized software. Carefulplanning by acquisition staff entailed adapting the pulse rate, flight altitude, scanangle, and ground speed to ensure complete coverage of the study area at thetarget point density of 9.40 points per square meter (0.87 pulses/square foot).Efforts are taken to optimize flight paths by minimizing flight times whilemeeting all accuracy specifications.Factors such as satellite constellation availability and weather windows mustbe considered during the planning stage. Any weather hazards or conditions affectingthe flight were continuously monitored due to their potential impact on the dailysuccess of airborne and ground operations. In addition, a variety of logisticalconsiderations required review including private property access, potential airspace restrictions, and availability of company resources (both staff andequipment).Special care was taken to acquire the tidal flats at low tide wherepossible. Acquisition on the upper reach of the Middle Fork Nooksack studyarea was postponed due to snow. Full acquisition of the entire area wascompleted on July 28, 2013.
• LiDAR Processing Steps:1. Resolve kinematic corrections for aircraft position data using kinematic aircraft GPSand static ground GPS data.Software - Waypoint GPS v.8.3 Trimble Business Center v.3.00 Geographic Calculator 20132. Develop a smoothed best estimate of trajectory (SBET) file that blends post-processedaircraft position with attitude data. Sensor head position and attitude are calculatedthroughout the survey. The SBET data are used extensively for laser point processing.Software - IPAS TC v.3.13. Calculate laser point position by associating SBET position to each laser point returntime, scan angle, intensity, etc. Create raw laser point cloud data for the entire surveyin *.las (ASPRS v. 1.2) format. Data are converted to orthometric elevations (NAVD88) byapplying a Geoid12 correction.Software - ALS Post Processing Software v.2.744. Import raw laser points into manageable blocks (less than 500 MB) to perform manualrelative accuracy calibration and filter erroneous points. Ground points are thenclassified for individual flight lines (to be used for relative accuracy testingand calibration).Software - TerraScan v.13.0085. Using ground classified points per each flight line, the relative accuracy is tested.Automated line-to-line calibrations are then performed for system attitude parameters(pitch, roll, heading), mirror flex (scale) and GPS/IMU drift.Calibrations are calculated on ground classified points from paired flight lines andresults are applied to all points in a flight line. Every flight line is used forrelative accuracy calibration.Software - TerraMatch v.13.0026. Classify resulting data to ground and other client designated ASPRSclassifications (Table 7). Assess statistical absolute accuracy via direct comparisonsof ground classified points to ground RTK survey data.Software - TerraScan v.13.008 TerraModeler v.13.0027. Generate bare earth models as triangulated surfaces. Highest hit models were createdas a surface expression of all classified points (excluding the noise and withheldclasses). All surface models were exported as ESRI grids at a 3-foot pixel resolution.Software - TerraScan v.13.008 ArcMap v. 10.1 TerraModeler v.13.002
• 2014-01-14 00:00:00 - The NOAA Office for Coastal Management (OCM) downloaded topographic files in LAZ format from PSLC's website.The files contained lidar easting, northing, elevation, intensity, return number, class, scan angleand GPS time measurements. Entiat data were received in Washington State Plane North, 4601 (feet) andreferenced to NAVD88 (feet).OCM performed the following processing for data storage and Digital Coast provisioning purposes:1. The All-Return LAZ files were cleared of variable lengths records.2. The All-Return LAZ files were converted from a Projected Coordinate System (State Plane 4601)to a Geographic Coordinate system (NAD83).3. The All-Return LAZ files were converted from NAVD88 to ellipsoidal heights using Geoid03.

This data can be obtained on-line at the following URL:https://coast.noaa.gov/dataviewer/#/lidar/search/where:ID=2615;