A Terrestrial Laser Scanning Data Archive for Multi-Temporal Mapping Across Research Disciplines

Since 2008, UNAVCO has provided the scientific community with terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) instrumentation, data collection and processing, and data products in support of research and education projects around the globe. As part of this effort, UNAVCO has created a comprehensive archive of TLS datasets that enables access through a web-based search interface (https://tls.unavco.org). The archive was specifically designed to accommodate research where multi-temporal data is collected, such as geomorphology and glaciology. Presently, approximately 30% of project sites contain multi-temporal data. The data archive is designed with a structure where the "project" is the top-level entity, and each "project" consists of "project sites", which contain the individual sites scanned. A "project site" is defined as an area of interest as delineated by the research team, and a given "project" may have more than one site. Each individual "project site" is then organized by "site visits", each of which represent a single data collection campaign. Within a "site visit" each dataset is categorized as either a "project file" which includes raw lidar and GPS data, site photos, and documents, or a "deliverable" which includes higher level products such as georeferenced point clouds, and merged lidar scans. By structuring the archive in this manner, researchers can quickly search and access locations with repeat scans for multi-temporal analysis. Data citation for each project is established by assigning a Digital Object Identifier (DOI) to each discrete data-collection campaign. Currently the archive contains over 350 unique DOIs and nearly 100 different projects from disciplines such as glaciology, hydrology, seismology, volcanology, ecology, and archeology. Since inception, the archive has evolved to not only store UNAVCO affiliated projects, but also to provide a centralized location for community supported researchers to store, access, and share TLS data products. In addition, as SfM projects have increased as a means to perform cost-effective change detection studies, the archive has expanded to host such projects. Moving forward, OGC web services are being developed that will enable the UNAVCO TLS archive to be integrated into existing community data repositories such as OpenTopography, and further enhance data discovery and access.