Studying Karst Relief in the Eastern Lago-Naki Plateau Using LIDAR and High-Resolution Aerial Photographs

Abstract—Light Detection and Ranging scanner (LIDAR) provides precise information about the current state of relief even for densely forested areas. Ground surface point clouds were used to create raster digital elevation models (DEM) of two study areas at Lago-Naki Plateau (Krasnodar krai and the Republic of Adygea, Russia). Karst depression patterns on the plateau were examined using LIDAR-based DEM and aerial photographs. Various analysis methods were used to examine karst relief with the help of open software SAGA GIS (rasterizing LIDAR data and calculating morphometric indices) and ImageJ (Fourier transformation and two-dimensional bandpass filter functions). The current karst relief patterns were explored by methods of mathematical morphology of landscapes.