Evaluating U.S. Geological Survey 3D Elevation Program LiDAR data as a source for building height

Jung-Kuan Liu; Ethan J. Shavers; Samantha T. Arundel; Rongjun Qin

doi:10.14358/pers.25-00156r4

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Evaluating U.S. Geological Survey 3D Elevation Program LiDAR data as a source for building height

Jung-Kuan Liu·Ethan J. Shavers·Samantha T. Arundel·Rongjun Qin

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Abstract

Accurate building height information is used for numerous urban applications, including infrastructure modeling, disaster risk assessment, and energy demand estimation. The U.S. Geological Survey collects airborne lidar data to support the three-dimensional elevation program (3DEP). The high point density and vertical accuracy of the lidar point clouds are optimal for 3D mapping. Few studies have systematically evaluated building height extraction from 3DEP lidar point clouds in urban areas. This study assesses the accuracy and consistency of building height estimates from two publicly available data sets by comparing them to the 3DEP lidar data. The public building height data sets are USA Structures and Microsoft Global Building Footprints (GBF), and they are evaluated across two contrasting urban sites. Building heights from USA Structures are also lidar-derived, whereas GBF estimates are based on stereo matching of optical imagery. Building heights from 3DEP were extracted by classifying lidar points using a deep learning model, isolating roof and ground returns, and computing the height as the median elevation difference between the roof and surrounding ground points. For both sites, 3DEP lidar-derived heights show strong agreement with USA Structures (R 2 = 0.87 and 0.86; MAE = 1.8 and 2.2 m), confirming the internal consistency and reliability of lidar-derived measurements. In contrast, comparisons with GBF height estimates reveal significantly lower correlations (R 2 = 0.54 and 0.60; MAE = 2.5 and 3.1 m), highlighting the limitations of imagery-based height reconstruction, particularly in dense or heterogeneous urban environments. These findings indicate that lidar can be used as an accurate source for vertical structure characterization and underscore the benefits of improved integration and bias correction when using imagery-derived building heights. The results provide support for hybrid approaches that combine the broad spatial coverage of optical data sets with the accuracy of lidar for scalable 3D urban mapping.

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Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing (PE&RS)Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 29.373147720137382° to 39.59297201713031° latitude; -104.9021154322207° to -94.53730927651452° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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Jung-Kuan Liu, Ethan J. Shavers, Samantha T. Arundel, Rongjun Qin. 2026. Evaluating U.S. Geological Survey 3D Elevation Program LiDAR data as a source for building height. https://doi.org/10.14358/pers.25-00156r4

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