How high - resolution DEM based on airborne LiDAR helped to reinterpret landforms : examples from the Sudetes, SW Poland

The paper reviews recent advances in landform mapping and interpretation in the mountainous terrain of the Sudetes (SW Poland), possible due to the availability of high-resolution airborne LiDAR data. They are particularly useful in the recognition of minor landforms and their spatial patterns in the montane forest belt and in the dwarf pine zone in the most elevated parts of the Sudetes. The use of LiDAR data has allowed to both re-evaluate landforms known before, especially their extent and cross-relationships, as well as to discover surface features that have escaped attention before. The examples discussed include glacial and periglacial landforms in the Karkonosze, morphological signatures of mass movements in the Stołowe Mountains, fluvial features and morphotectonic analysis in the Izerskie Mountains. Although LiDAR immensely increases the scope for landform recognition and mapping, image interpretation should be verified in the field. Despite theoretical capability of LiDAR-derived models to show even landforms 1–2 m in length, 4–6 m seems the more realistic threshold size unless surface features are distinctly linear and continue over long distances.