Post by Lutra Consulting

New point cloud change detection in QGIS 4.0 We are pleased to share a new core feature coming to QGIS 4.0, continuing our focus on developing advanced point cloud tools and visualisations. In collaboration with Hobu, our team at Lutra Consulting has developed a native M3C2 (Multiscale Model-to-Model Cloud Comparison) processing algorithm. This development was funded by Klimadatastyrelsen (Danish Climate Data), GEUS, and Septima to support better detection of erosion and landslide activity. Traditionally, change detection required rasterising point clouds into digital elevation models and subtracting the grids. This approach often introduces unwanted artefacts and fails to capture horizontal or diagonal movements, such as a retreating cliff face. The new M3C2 tool changes this by working directly on raw point clouds to measure displacement along the local surface orientation. Alongside the change magnitude, the algorithm calculates a critical level of detection to provide a 95% confidence interval. This metric helps users easily distinguish true environmental change from minor measurement noise. You can find the new tool in the processing toolbox under point cloud data management, reflecting our ongoing commitment to enhancing open-source community initiatives. You can read more here: https://lnkd.in/dq2v_shb