Use of high resolution spatial and climate data to evaluate airport runway surface evenness flooding potential

Abstract

The scope of this study is to show how the use of airborne LiDAR can in principle be used as an alternative runway control instead of traditional tachymetric surveys. Considering the performances of the most recent LiDAR instrumentation in terms of range, accuracy, point density and rapid acquisition, such instrumentation is bound to offer an interesting opportunity to measure the degree of runway unevenness and identify the current runway surface conditions to highlight problematic areas that could potentially give rise to wet surfaces or the occurrence of water patches or standing water.