---
title: "Forest LiDAR for a road project | SensorFlight"
canonical_url: https://sensorflight.com/en/case-studies/lidar-bosque-carretera-kirklareli/
language: en
---

# Closing a forest gap in the mapping of a road project

LiDAR. Location: Kırklareli, Turkey. Year: 2026.

A road alignment in Kırklareli crossed about 120 hectares of unmapped forest. Our partner MapSurvey closed the gap with a Zenmuse L2 LiDAR scan instead of a ground survey.

## The specific problem

The road project's existing mapping was complete except for one forested stretch. Without ground heights there, the vertical alignment cannot be fixed and earthworks cannot be calculated, and surveying it with GNSS under dense canopy is slow and suffers from poor signal.

## Why LiDAR was the only sensible route

Under trees, photogrammetry returns the canopy, not the terrain. LiDAR sends pulses that pass through gaps in the foliage and records several returns; the last ones belong to the ground. Here a Zenmuse L2 scanned the stand and the echoes that had passed between the trees to the soil were isolated, which is where the terrain model comes from.

The true orthophoto, built on the surface model, removes the lean of treetops and tall objects that a conventional orthophoto shows, so it sits on the drawing without offset.

## What was delivered

Three files that drop straight into the existing road design.

- **Terrain model**: Ground heights under the trees for the vertical alignment, sections and earthworks of the stretch.
- **True orthophoto**: Offset free background for drawing the alignment and checking limits.
- **DXF drawing**: A layer that merges into the road plan in any CAD package.

## If you have a similar project in Spain

If your mapping has gaps under vegetation, ask for the terrain model in the same system as the rest of the project (usually ETRS89 and the local UTM zone) and the classified cloud as LAS or LAZ so you can review the ground and vegetation split. To quote, we need the polygon of the gap, the density of the stand and the drawing formats your team uses.

## Technical sheet

- Area: About 120 ha
- Sensor: Zenmuse L2 (LiDAR)
- Setting: Forest cover
- Processing: Separation of the returns reaching the ground
- Year: 2026
- Executed by: MapSurvey, SensorFlight's technical partner

## A project by our technical partner

This work was carried out by MapSurvey, our technical partner in Turkey, measuring since 2015. In Spain, SensorFlight handles the fieldwork and the client relationship, and MapSurvey processes the data and delivers the models. Samet Bayram Gulyol, GIS expert at MapSurvey, is SensorFlight's technical lead.

See the original project sheet on mapsurvey.eu: https://www.mapsurvey.eu/projects/forest-lidar-mapping-road-project

## Have a similar project?

Tell us the area, the timeframe and the deliverables you need and we will prepare a proposal.

- Email: info@sensorflight.com
- Phone: +34 690 00 02 13