LIDAR Magazine wishes all readers a happy, healthy, fulfilling 2026. We appreciate you taking time to browse our pages. Composing this during the breathless run-up to Geo Week 2026, I am conscious that the festive season ended quite recently. Many of us enjoy family traditions during the holidays. One of ours is to view the soppy 2003 British romcom Love Actually. Its multiple, improbable threads include a fine performance by Bill Nighy as an aging rock star who unexpectedly tops the charts with a song called “Christmas Is All Around,” based on a 1967 Troggs classic. Lidar’s the same – everywhere. This column has often included mentions of lidar in the world press, but now it’s coming close to home. A photograph published in my local paper not so long ago showed speed cops on motor bikes, positioned beside State Road 67 in southern California, ready to pounce on speedsters1.
I reported on the discussion during Intergeo last October in Frankfurt on the skills required of today’s professionals to evaluate AI results2. This topic, too, made an appearance in my local paper3! Indeed, the role of AI in the geospatial industry now is the leading 2026 trend identified in Qassim Abdullah’s perspicacious article in this issue. He takes the debate a step further, for example advocating for the development of standards surrounding the geospatial use of AI.
Qassim also highlights the increasing performance of sensors and the sheer volume of data capture that is now possible. Two of this issue’s articles underline this. Ryan Cross brings a beautifully illustrated piece from Woolpert about hydrographic surveys of the Port Valdez inlet near Valdez, Alaska and the nearby Valdez Glacier Lake. Authoritative data on these water bodies is essential to the management of both marine traffic and local urban development. Søren Jespersen of Hexagon goes nationwide, however, covering the generation of DSMs and DEMs for all of South Africa, a truly massive project successfully executed through the collaboration of GeoSpace International, Hexagon and RiskScape.
Although ubiquitous, the trends described by Qassim are probably most readily observed in leading-edge private geospatial services providers or national mapping agencies (defense and intelligence organizations too). At the other end of the scale, to what extent does a two-person professional land survey firm use AI to demarcate a property boundary so the owner can erect a new fence? Between these extremes, Geoff Wade of Esri explains how the operations of a private forestry company in Louisiana with a long history of successful silviculture have been transformed by the adoption of GIS, satellite imagery and tablets. AI is embedded in the software used in the process and is permeating the processes that the company, RoyOMartin, follows to optimize planting, growth and harvesting.
Florian Caraveo of YellowScan and Evert Mulder and Nick Brown of the UN Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence discuss the challenges of discontinuities between topographic and bathymetric or sonar data. Florian presents examples captured by the YellowScan Navigator topobathymetric UAV-lidar sensor, whereas Evert and Nick are more geodetically inclined, charged with providing advice to UN Member States.
We’re approaching the XXV Congress of ISPRS, in Toronto in July. A well-known figure in ISPRS circles is Prof. Ruisheng Wang, who moved from Calgary to Shenzhen in 2024. He presents BuildingWorld, a remarkable dataset of five million LoD2 – and a few LoD3 – building models in 44 cities across five continents. This work of Ruisheng and his team ties in nicely with the highlighting of digital twins by both Qassim Abdullan and Amar Nayegandhi, whose Full Coverage column complements Qassim’s piece. So positive was the response within Woolpert to Qassim’s article that the company conducted a questionnaire of 31 senior managers to assess what trends they identified as important. This reflects a document I was given by Trimble just before Intergeo, summarizing a similar exercise4. Talking to senior, experienced folk in world-class organizations is surely the best way to probe what is really going on.
While unsurprisingly echoing many of Qassim’s thoughts, Amar provides some insights of his own. He stresses pressure on water, energy and transportation systems, the influence of data center construction and operation, intensifying global competition and the continuing integration of geospatial data into decision-making. He ends with insights into workplace culture during these changing times. These viewpoints from Woolpert leaders matter: treat them as cut-out-and-keep guidelines to the geospatial future.
Our podcast series continues apace and I am both delighted and privileged to have enjoyed two wonderful conversations, the first to be posted in 2026. These were with Alex Brihac, Vice President, Head of Strategy and M&A at Hexagon Geosystems, and Grayson Omans, founder and CEO at Phoenix LiDAR Systems. Alex is brilliant, dynamic, perceptive and a master of the world of mergers and acquisitions. Grayson is more relaxed, both in command of the technology and able to solve customer problems himself, while managing the affairs of a growing company on the business side. Enjoy!
Perhaps owing to the arrival of 2026 and the proximity of Geo Week, news is arriving thick and fast. I’ll mention just a few titbits that caught my attention.
John Welter left Hexagon on 23 January. I had some email discussion with him, asking him why he was making a change while absolutely at the top of his game. I can understand his response – at age 55, one has to decide whether to do the same work until retirement, or reach for the stars. We await a formal announcement of his revised orbit, but I see that his Linked In page gives his role as “SVP, Geospatial Strategy” and his location as Starbase, Texas. Any ideas?
Thus we’ve brought you five articles from US authors, covering trends and locations from Alaska to Louisiana to Singapore. To these we’ve added one from a French author about rivers in western Europe, one from authors in Germany and Singapore talking about geodetic aspects of integrating topographic and bathymetric data, and one from a Swedish author talking about South Africa. Lidar is indeed all around.
- 1 Gallant, J., 2025. Sheriff’s and CHP collaborating to improve safety on SR-67, Poway News Chieftain, 73(12): Section A, 1, 14 August 2025.
- 2 https://lidarmag.com/2025/11/06/intergeo-2025-a-retrospective-2/
- 3 Churchill, B., 2026. In the age of AI, schools must prioritize critical thinking, Poway News Chieftain, 73(32): Section A,4, 1 January 2026.
- 4 Walker, A.S., 2025. Ibid.