PpC: a new method to reduce the density of lidar data. Does it affect the DEM accuracy?

In cost–benefit analysis of lidar data acquisition, point density is often artificially reduced in order to examine how this affects the quality of derived products. However, the performance of the different density reduction methods has not yet been compared and their influence on the accuracy of the models and results has not been evaluated. A novel method for reducing the point density, termed Proportional per Cell (PpC), is presented and compared with the performance of three other reduction methods, examining their influence on the accuracy of lidar‐derived digital surface models using ISPRS reference data. The results indicate that the PpC method was better at conserving the characteristics of the original data. However, point density, sample type and slope had a greater influence than the reduction method used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]