Researchers made 3D laser maps of Northern Nevada and the data is available to anyone online

Few people would have given much thought to a twin-engine Cessna taking off from the Minden-Tahoe Airport on Sept. 20, 2017.

And only the most diligent observer would have noticed the aircraft as it spent the better part of the next 40 days methodically flying 610 times over Carson City and Reno.

But the product of those flights could have a profound impact for people in Northern Nevada for decades to come.

That’s because the aircraft was carrying a passenger operating a Leica ALS80 LiDAR sensor. LiDAR, or 3D laser scanning, is a technology that works similarly to radar.

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The operator used the device, mounted on the aircraft, to capture the most detailed topographic map to date of Carson City, Reno, portions of Storey and Lyon counties and the Carson Range.

That map, which captured features smaller than 20 inches square, is 10 to 20 times more detailed than previously available topographic data for the region.

It’s publicly available from the U.S. Geological Survey or Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geoglogy for anyone, from backcountry skiers looking to map avalanche hazards to builders who wants to avoid earthquake faults or flood zones, to download.

Although the technology to make such maps has been available for years it hasn’t been widely deployed in Nevada, at least not for the purpose of generating maps for the public domain.

Until the recent mapping, Nevada’s public domain coverage was limited to a portion of the Humboldt River Basin near Elko and parts of Clark County near Las Vegas.

Part of the reason for the lack of coverage is the technology was leaping forward in the early part of the decade when the state was mired in a recession and cash to use for matching funds was in short supply.

“We didn’t have the high resolution, publicly available data set for the Reno-Carson area,” said Seth Dee, geologic mapping specialist for the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. “This is something we’ve been advocating for and really wanted for research and for infrastructure and a bunch of other applications.”

The project cost $619,000, said Jim Faulds, director of the Nevada Bureau of Mines and Geology. The University of Nevada and USGS each contributed $150,000, Faulds said. The Washoe County Regional Basemap Committee, U.S. Forest Service, cities of Reno and Sparks, Lyon and Storey counties and NV Energy also contributed.

There are already talks to expand the project further north in Washoe County and south into Douglas County, Faulds said.

“I think our goal is eventually have an annual proposal,” he said. “So long as the economy stays decent and there are some funds available, we should be able to.”

The data is an upgrade over previous LiDAR maps of the region which had a resolution of about 10 meters. The higher resolution allows people to see details they hadn’t seen before.

In just a few months people have already used the data to discover more than two dozen previously unknown earthquake faults, better understand the age of landslide deposits at the mouth of Ophir Creek in Washoe Valley which helps analyze risk of future slides, find evidence of ancient lake shorelines in Lemmon Valley which helps for flood risk analysis and a better understanding of the size and history of ice age glaciers on Mt. Rose.

“It is like prescription glasses, you don’t have them and finally you get them so you can see all kinds of nuanced detail,” Dee said.

The maps are also an improvement over what’s publicly available through satellite-based services such as Google Earth.

Unlike satellite photos, LiDAR can capture data in layers which gives people more options when using the data.

For example, ecologists or fire management officials could configure data into maps that depict vegetation coverage. Other users, such as geologists or land use planners, can filter out vegetation and get a “bare earth” view of the ground.

“That’s what’s kind of exciting,” Dee said.