3D topographic representation of the territory in the form of a point cloud. LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) technology makes it possible to represent the Earth's surface topographically in three dimensions using a laser system mounted on board an aircraft. The very large number of 3D points recorded (up to 400,000 per second) makes it possible to obtain a multitude of details at the level of the ground and surface elements. LiDAR technology quickly, easily, and above all accurately provides the altitude of ground details and elements above ground, even in the presence of dense vegetation. The uses are: creation of a digital terrain model (DTM), creation of level curves, creation of level curves, volume calculation, planning, calculation of tree heights, mapping of building roofs, 3D modeling of cities, etc. Source: XEOS imagery inc.**This third party metadata element was translated using an automated translation tool (Amazon Translate).**

The LiDAR Point Clouds is a product that is part of the CanElevation Series created to support the National Elevation Data Strategy implemented by NRCan. This product contains point clouds from various airborne LiDAR acquisition projects conducted in Canada. These airborne LiDAR acquisition projects may have been conducted by NRCan or by various partners. The LiDAR point cloud data is licensed under an open government license and has been incorporated into the National Elevation Data Strategy. Point cloud files are distributed by LiDAR acquisition project without integration between projects. The point cloud files are distributed using the compressed .LAZ / Cloud Optimized Point Cloud (COPC) format. The COPC open format is an octree reorganization of the data inside a .LAZ 1.4 file. It allows efficient use and visualization rendering via HTTP calls (e.g. via the web), while offering the capabilities specific to the compressed .LAZ format which is already well established in the industry. Point cloud files are therefore both downloadable for local use and viewable via URL links from a cloud computing environment. The reference system used for all point clouds in the product is NAD83(CSRS), epoch 2010. The projection used is the UTM projection with the corresponding zone. Elevations are orthometric and expressed in reference to the Canadian Geodetic Vertical Datum of 2013 (CGVD2013).