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Map roads and parking for bumps, ruts and where water will stand

The scans become a 10 cm height grid of the ground, cars left out. From it: the heights with contours, the bumps and dips against their surroundings, and the places water would collect. For the demonstration, we scanned the administration building at the University of Idaho.

1 · A real result

Plan of the site coloured by height against the ground within 1.5 m: road crowns in red, gutters along the road edges in blue, kerbs in grey. — Bumps and dips: each 10 cm cell against the ground within 1.5 m around it, so the site's slope drops out. Road crowns show red, gutters blue, kerbs and beds grey.

Plan of the site with places where water would stand shaded blue and numbered by volume. — Where water would stand before spilling over the ground around it, numbered by volume.

Plan of the site's ground heights with contours: the ground falls about 3 m to the south. — Ground heights with contours every 200 mm: the site falls about 3 m to the south.

1.2%overall fall of the site

23low spots of 0.5 m² or more, 10 mm or deeper

74 litreslow spot L8, on the road by station 4: 5.6 m², 28 mm deep

10 cmgrid, over about 10,000 m² seen

Not every low spot is a puddle. The deepest here (L1, 203 mm) is a planting bed in the courtyard. The report lists each one with its position, so someone can check it on site.

2 · What you receive

The three maps above, a table of low spots (position, area, deepest point, volume) as CSV, and the low spots on the DXF plan.
The height grid itself, to compare with a later visit: cut and fill between the two.
Cross-sections along any line you choose (see heights and sections).

Open the full report for this site.

3 · What it takes on site

Stations along the surfaces you care about, about every 15 to 25 m; ground farther than 30 m from every scanner is left out, as it is seen too flat to be trusted.
Cars and bins hide what is under them: they are recognised and left out, and the ground under them stays unknown.
The analysis takes about half a minute on a laptop for this 19-station site.

4 · How sure

Water goes where the scan couldn't see. A drain, a grate or a gap in the scan lets water out; the map treats unseen ground as an outlet. Check drains on site.
Repeatable, not yet calibrated. Not yet compared with a level run or a total station on this site.
Volumes: the cut-and-fill arithmetic was checked on this site's real height grid with a planted 18.85 m³ pile and a 2.40 m³ pit (it reported 18.84 and 2.40 m³). That checks the arithmetic, not two real visits; stockpiles stay Close until a real pile has been scanned twice.
Not a stamped survey. Topographic deliverables that need a licensed surveyor still do.

Map roads and parking for bumps, ruts and where water will stand

1 · A real result

2 · What you receive

3 · What it takes on site

4 · How sure

Code and docs