Overlapping LAS tiles and edge artifacts

Question

I've read the Overlapping LAS tiles post, but it doesn't pertain to the following situation.
I'm trying to process a las catalog where I clip the catalog at specific plot locations with a 30 m radius.

As a result of the 30 m radius, the clipped tiles overlap and I see edge artifacts in the output (as indicated might happen in the readLAScatalog warning).

Is it possible to process these tiles as a catalog without edge artifacts?
Or will I need to read each file individually using readLAS?
I've tried processing the catalog sequentially, but the output still has edge effects.

JRR · Accepted Answer

Your case is covered in the book in this section. The idea here is that your files are no longer a wall-to-wall coverage of a territory. The LAScatalog engine is designed to process las files that encompass a territory where each files is spatially related to its neighbourhood.
In your case the files are independent. You basically want to loop through each file. In this case you can put this information in the catalog
opt_independent_files(ctg) <- TRUE

Each file will be processed independently, without buffer. This is equivalent to a regular loop (but with parallel capabilities and real time monitoring).
In addition depending of what you are doing you may want to avoid final merging
opt_merge(ctg) = FALSE

Overlapping LAS tiles and edge artifacts

One Answer

Add your own answers!

Ask a Question