Chapter 2: History

Abstract

The early years of laser hydrography have been traced by Guenther (1985). His review tracks the development of laser hydrography, now more commonly known as Airborne Laser Bathymetry (ALB), from the earliest theoretical and experimental efforts in the mid-1960's dealing with in-water lasers and the first demonstration systems capable of detecting bottom returns through the development of the first operational systems. The history was later extended to 1990 in a paper by Sizgoric, Banic and Guenther (1992). Guenther further detailed this history and provided descriptions of operational systems in the Airborne Lidar Bathymetry chapter of The DEM User's Manual (Guenther 2001), which he later updated in the 2nd Edition of the User's Manual (Guenther 2007). This chapter summarizes and updates these reference documents