Maritime Laser Scanning as the Source for Spatial Data

Abstract The rapid development of scanning technology, especially mobile scanning, gives the possibility to collect spatial data coming from maritime measurement platforms and autonomous manned or unmanned vehicles. Presented solution is derived from the mobile scanning. However we should keep in mind that the specificity of laser scanning at sea and processing collected data should be in the form acceptable in Geographical Information Systems, especially typical for the maritime needs. At the same time we should be aware that data coming from maritime mobile scanning constitutes a new approach to the describing of maritime environment and brings a new perspective that is completely different than air and terrestrial scanning. Therefore, the authors, would like to present results of an experiment aimed at testing the possibilities of using mobile scanning at sea. Experiment was conducted in the harbour and the associated environment of neighbouring southern coast of the Baltic Sea.