Dawson Los Monos Canyon Reserve Pasture and Creek UAV LiDAR Survey, CA 2024

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Residual Dry Matter (RDM) refers to the non-green/non-photosynthetic annual plant material left on the ground at the end of a growing season. Managing RDM is important for fire and grazing management in California Rangeland ecosystems. Estimating RDM through traditional field methods is labor, cost, and time-intensive, making large-scale sampling challenging. Remote sensing has been proposed to monitor RDM, however, traditional multispectral sensors often confuse RDM with bare soil due to limited spectral bands. UAV LiDAR is an alternative solution for remotely sensing RDM, however the utility and applicability of UAV LiDAR for estimating RDM in California Rangeland ecosystems is unknown. This pilot study at UC San Diego's Dawson Los Monos Canyon Reserve (a precursor to a large-scale study across Jack and Laura Dangermond Preserve with The Nature Conservancy) was conducted to determine the optimal LiDAR flight parameters and point density for estimating plot-scale RDM. A portion of Agua Hedionda Creek was also flown as part of this mission. This dataset has 3 files: 1. 120m AGL @4m/s flight of pasture: 558 points/m2 2. 60m AGL @2m/s flight of a portion of Agua Hedionda Creek: 2230 points/m2 3. 60m AGL @ 2m/s flight of pasture: 2230 points/m2 30m AGL @ 1m/s: 8921 and Structure from Motion Imagery of the pasture is also available upon request. These data exceed the storage limitation on the Community Dataspace Flights were conducted by Lloyd (Pete) Coulter and Wes Ramos who are certified FAA Part 107 Pilots at San Diego State University COA Permit Completed by Jon Witsell Reserve Day Use Permits were issued by UC San Diego Natural Reserve System Special thank you to the students at Palomar College and UCSD Staff for help with field data collection

opentopoID: OTDS.042025.32611.1
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5069/G9CR5RKJ
Platform: Airborne Lidar
Data Format: Point Cloud
Dataset Acknowledgement: N/A - Acknowledgement Guidance
Dataset Citation: Markman, B., Sousa, D., Coulter, L., Franklin, J., Butterfield, H.S., Witsell, J., Uyeda, K., Kay, I. (2025) Dawson Los Monos Canyon Reserve Pasture and Creek UAV LiDAR Survey, CA 2024. Distributed by OpenTopography. https://doi.org/10.5069/G9CR5RKJ. Accessed: 2026-04-30
Survey Date: 07/25/2024
Survey Area: 0.12 km2
Publication Date: 04/21/2025
Total Number of Points: 232,447,673 pts
Point Density: 1,876.94 pts/m2
Coordinates System:
Horizontal: WGS 84 / UTM zone 11N [EPSG: 32611]

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Spatial Extent

Show Data Files

    Point Cloud
  File Name Size Points Area (m2) Density  
1     120m.laz     527.28 MB     46,238,111     57,936     798.09         File Metadata    
SpatialReference: 
PROJCS["WGS 84 / UTM zone 11N",GEOGCS["WGS 84",DATUM["WGS_1984",SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",0],PARAMETER["central_meridian",-117],PARAMETER["scale_factor",0.9996],PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],PARAMETER["false_northing",0],UNIT["metre",1,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],AXIS["Easting",EAST],AXIS["Northing",NORTH],AUTHORITY["EPSG","32611"]]

Geographic Coordinates (Lat, Lon, Elevation) - EPSG:4326
North-East (Lat, Lon, Elevation): (33.14975500470078, -117.24793859877397, 91.408)
South-West (Lat, Lon, Elevation): (33.14743940054886, -117.25003781042274, 51.161)

Projected Coordinates (X, Y) - EPSG:32611
North-East (X, Y): (476877.787, 3667916.355)
South-West (X, Y): (476681.406, 3667660.105)

Classifications:
Class 0 (Created, never classified)46,238,111
2     60m_Creek.laz     1.05 GB     93,432,779     31,855     2,933.08         File Metadata    
SpatialReference: 
PROJCS["WGS 84 / UTM zone 11N",GEOGCS["WGS 84",DATUM["WGS_1984",SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",0],PARAMETER["central_meridian",-117],PARAMETER["scale_factor",0.9996],PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],PARAMETER["false_northing",0],UNIT["metre",1,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],AXIS["Easting",EAST],AXIS["Northing",NORTH],AUTHORITY["EPSG","32611"]]

Geographic Coordinates (Lat, Lon, Elevation) - EPSG:4326
North-East (Lat, Lon, Elevation): (33.1503829321855, -117.24777522010221, 86.215)
South-West (Lat, Lon, Elevation): (33.14872086003018, -117.25007983319486, 51.159)

Projected Coordinates (X, Y) - EPSG:32611
North-East (X, Y): (476893.188, 3667985.933)
South-West (X, Y): (476677.826, 3667802.181)

Classifications:
Class 0 (Created, never classified)93,432,779
3     60m.laz     1.01 GB     92,776,783     34,053     2,724.46         File Metadata    
SpatialReference: 
PROJCS["WGS 84 / UTM zone 11N",GEOGCS["WGS 84",DATUM["WGS_1984",SPHEROID["WGS 84",6378137,298.257223563,AUTHORITY["EPSG","7030"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","6326"]],PRIMEM["Greenwich",0,AUTHORITY["EPSG","8901"]],UNIT["degree",0.0174532925199433,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9122"]],AUTHORITY["EPSG","4326"]],PROJECTION["Transverse_Mercator"],PARAMETER["latitude_of_origin",0],PARAMETER["central_meridian",-117],PARAMETER["scale_factor",0.9996],PARAMETER["false_easting",500000],PARAMETER["false_northing",0],UNIT["metre",1,AUTHORITY["EPSG","9001"]],AXIS["Easting",EAST],AXIS["Northing",NORTH],AUTHORITY["EPSG","32611"]]

Geographic Coordinates (Lat, Lon, Elevation) - EPSG:4326
North-East (Lat, Lon, Elevation): (33.14940103600104, -117.24815644653934, 86.272)
South-West (Lat, Lon, Elevation): (33.14768009307431, -117.24984482010971, 51.142)

Projected Coordinates (X, Y) - EPSG:32611
North-East (X, Y): (476857.378, 3667877.161)
South-West (X, Y): (476699.468, 3667686.746)

Classifications:
Class 0 (Created, never classified)92,776,783
  Summary 2.57 GB     232,447,673     123,844     1,876.94      
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Bulk Download     opentopoID: OTDS.042025.32611.1

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