Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions

LiDAR lightning talks

Date and Time
Tuesday, March 28, 2017 - 9 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Location
EH 1104

About

Back to top

LiDAR, which stands for Light Detection and Ranging, is a remote sensing method that uses light in the form of a pulsed laser to measure ranges (variable distances) to the Earth. It's used for many purposes, including in autonomous vehicles. PhD students Justin Kirkpatrick (an Energy Initiative Doctoral Fellow) and Zachary Brecheisen will speak about LiDAR and the opportunities it could afford. 

Justin's talk will focus on the economics of "seeing"—using LiDAR assessed visibility to estimate peer effects and environmental disamenities. A brief description: Every day, we make decisions on our environmental behaviors—recycling, biking to work, or eating vegetarian. My work in this area centers on understanding how people are affected by seeing signals or signs of their neighbor's environmental decisions. For instance, if a person sees solar panels on a neighbor's house, are they more or less likely to install on their own home? Or if they see a fracking rig on their neighbor's land, are they more or less likely to drink their tap water? LiDAR provides a unique opportunity to infer visibility of large environmental "signals" like solar panels or fracking rigs, allowing for much richer data necessary to estimate causal effects.