Editorial: LiDAR – rapid developments in remote sensing of geological features

Abstract

LiDAR-based (Light Detection And Ranging) 2 m-grid digital elevation models (DEM) are exceptional remote sensing data in geosciences in many aspects: they can be used to constrain terrain features in greater detail than ever before (Johnson et al., 2015), allow extraction of new geomorphological features and relationships (Mäkinen et al., 2017), provide a possibility of acquiring 3D information of the terrain, and nowadays cover extensive areas in Finland (ca. 90%), and elsewhere in the Fennoscandian Shield. LiDAR DEMs open up new ways of investigating and modelling of geological processes and geomorphological characteristics, and thus provide significant potential for advancing theories in geosciences. In Scandinavia, high-resolution LiDAR imagery has so far been employed to study and map a wide range of glacial geomorphology and postglacial terrain features. These include research on issues such as ribbed (Rogen) and hummock moraines and their tracks and corridors (Möller and Dowling, 2015; Peterson et al., 2017), ice streaming (Greenwood et al., 2015), De Geer moraines (Bouvier et al., 2015; Ojala et al., 2015; Ojala 2016), subglacial meltwater systems (Sarala et al., 2015), beach ridges, cliffs and shore terraces (Ojala et al., 2013), fluvial terraces, floods plains and lateral meltwater channels (Eilertsen et al., 2015), Bulletin of the Geological Society of Finland, Vol. 89, 2017, pp 61–63, https://doi.org/10.17741/bgsf/89.2.ed