PRO Production

Generate terrain-focused raster products from LiDAR with consistent QA and surface controls.

workflow pro

## Workflow Narrative

LiDAR Terrain Product Suite

### Problem It Solves

How can we convert raw LiDAR into a consistent, production-ready terrain package quickly and reproducibly?

### Who It Is For

- Terrain product operations teams and applied engineering GIS units.

### Primary User

Mapping programs, engineering/environmental consultancies, and topographic data providers.

### What It Does

- Produces a full terrain derivative package from raw LiDAR in one run.
- Includes core terrain products and propagated QA metrics.
- Emits metadata contract for reproducibility and downstream automation.

### How It Works

- Performs LiDAR preprocessing/classification and interpolates terrain surfaces.
- Derives DTM/DSM/slope/hillshade products from the processed ground and surface model.
- Propagates QA diagnostics into confidence/uncertainty and records run metadata contract.
- Indicative formula: slope = atan(sqrt((dz/dx)^2 + (dz/dy)^2)); hillshade from slope/aspect and illumination azimuth/zenith.

### Why It Wins

- Unifies classification, terrain derivatives, and QA metadata into one operational pipeline.

### Typical Buying Trigger

Production teams must deliver standardized terrain products at scale with minimal manual orchestration.

### Typical Presets

- balanced for default production.
- strict for high-stakes engineering QA contexts.

## Inputs

Parameter | Optional | Description
--- | --- | ---
input (LAS/LAZ) | no | Input LiDAR point cloud used to derive QA, terrain, structure, or encroachment products.
profile, block size, slope/elevation thresholds | no | Terrain-suite processing profile and block/threshold controls for derivative generation.
hillshade and QA controls | no | Hillshade illumination and QA export controls for terrain package outputs.

## Outputs

Parameter | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
dtm | GeoTIFF | Digital terrain model raster generated from workflow processing.
dsm | GeoTIFF | Digital surface model raster generated from workflow processing.
slope | GeoTIFF | Slope derivative raster generated from terrain processing.
hillshade | GeoTIFF | Hillshade visualization raster generated from terrain derivatives.
confidence | GeoTIFF | Confidence layer quantifying reliability of modeled outputs.
uncertainty | GeoTIFF | Uncertainty diagnostics layer highlighting low-certainty areas.
metadata | JSON | Metadata contract describing generated products and provenance.
html_report | HTML | Human-readable customer-facing report generated from the metadata/summary contract for stakeholder review and QA traceability.
classified_lidar | optional LAS/LAZ | Optional classified LiDAR point cloud output from QA/terrain workflows.

## Python Example

    import whitebox_workflows as wbw

    wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

    result = wbe.lidar_terrain_product_suite(
        input="data/points.laz",
        profile="balanced",
        output_prefix="output/terrain_suite",
    )

    print(result)

## License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

## Project Links

WbW Homepage User Manual Support WbW