 Maneesh Prasad maneesh.prasad@gisdevelopment.net LiDAR for spatial data creation in the Asian region is considered sensitive and therefore to an extent it is restricted! Because of restrictive policies, we observe its low usage in this region, although there have been numerous deterrents cited for this, namely aviation infrastructure, low clouds, haze etc in the article by David Jonas. Also, we do not see much of the "Business Process Outsourcing" in the field of LiDAR data processing as compared to those of Aerial Photogrammetry, Map updation etc. It appears that there is little room for the industry to venture in this domain. Probably, the outsourcing is affected by the sensitivity of the data, even for the traditionally open and vibrant LiDAR markets. What do we do in the situation where the commercial usage of LiDAR is negligible or low? The academia 'can' play a role by moving ahead with its education in this domain, as the restrictive 'policies for LiDAR use in surveying and mapping' would not impede the education and research. But this wishful thinking has a precedent which is in sharp contrast to this. If we look into the past, government policies have had profound impact on the education content. For example, the progressive approach of the Government of India towards the use of Indian Remote Sensing satellite imageries for industry and academia has fueled the use of satellite imageries by the education sector along with the industry. Today we have post graduate programmes being offered in Remote Sensing. In contrast LiDAR will have to wait a while before we see a post graduate programmes like MS or M.Tech in LiDAR. Well, till that time the industry has to keep itself technologically aware, networked and updated and we in the media need to keep talking about the relevance of LiDAR in surveying and mapping. In the meanwhile we will continue to lose the cost advantage offered by LiDAR along with the short time duration in which the data can be generated for a specific area of interest. Particularly, it could have been of immense use for the infrastructure projects like power transmission, hydro-electric power sites, telecom, roads etc. These are the areas where we will continue to see huge investments in the South and South East Asian region. For the odd jobs that come by we will see events like aircrafts being flown from Russia, for LiDAR mapping in Vietnam. The sensitivity of this data and the apprehension of the industry refraining them from even sharing their views can be gauged from the response which we received while asking for their views: ".I would like to state that we are not interested to publish our experiences in this sensitive area, due to."; ".I wish to thank you for your invitation to provide inputs to the issue to be published on LiDAR business but we express our inability to participate in this issue." The geospatial community must be feeling like literature Nobel Laureate, Rabindranath Tagore, in his childhood, when he used to be in solitary confinement, watching all the hustlebustle of the town, from the window of his room. We can only hope that whenever the policy and regulations are eased keeping in view the security of the nation, we will see similar great works in terms of its use by not only by the community but also the industry. |