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R package for Airborne LiDAR Data Manipulation and Visualization for Forestry Applications

The lidR package provides functions to read and write .las and .laz files, plot a point cloud, compute metrics using an area-based approach, compute digital canopy models, thin lidar data, manage a catalog of datasets, automatically extract ground inventories, process a set of tiles in multicore, individual tree segmentation, classify data from geographic data, and provides other tools to manipulate LiDAR data.

Development of the lidR package between 2015 and 2017 was made possible thanks to the financial support of the AWARE project; grantee Prof Nicholas Coops.

Please contact the author for bug reports or feature requests (on github, preferably). I enjoy implementing new features!

  1. Features
  2. Install lidR
  3. Some examples
  4. Changelog

Features (not exhaustive)

Install lidR

  • The latest released version from CRAN with
install.packages("lidR")
  • The latest development version from github with
devtools::install_github("Jean-Romain/rlas", dependencies=TRUE)
devtools::install_github("Jean-Romain/lidR", dependencies=TRUE)

To install the package from github make sure you have a working development environment.

  • Windows: Install Rtools.exe.
  • Mac: Install Xcode from the Mac App Store.
  • Linux: Install the R development package, usually called r-devel or r-base-dev

Some examples

Changelog

See changelogs on NEW.md

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Version

Install

install.packages('lidR')

Monthly Downloads

4,861

Version

1.3.0

License

GPL-3

Issues

Pull Requests

Stars

Forks

Maintainer

Jean-Romain Roussel

Last Published

June 2nd, 2025

Functions in lidR (1.3.0)

LAS-class

An S4 class to represent the data read in a .las or .laz file
lasground

Classify points as ground or not ground
lidR-deprecated

Deprecated function(s) in the lidR package
LAD

Leaf area density
tree_metrics

Compute metrics for each tree
entropy

Normalized Shannon diversity index
lidr_options

Options Settings for the lidR package
-,LAS,RasterLayer-method

Convenient operator to lasnormalize
extent,LAS-method

Extent
grid_density

Map the pulse or point density
grid_hexametrics

Compute metrics for hexagonal cells
writeLAS

Write a las or laz file
laspulse

Retrieve individual pulses
plot.LAScatalog

Plot a LAScatalog object
lasroi

Select a region of interest interactively
plot.lashexametrics

Plot an object of class lashexametrics in 2D
plot3d

Plot a wireframe of a RasterLayer or a lasmetrics object
readLAS

Read .las or .laz files
area

Surface covered by a LAS object or by a LAScatalog.
catalog

Build a catalog of las tiles/files
as.lasmetrics

Set the class 'lasmetrics' to a data.frame or a data.table
catalog_apply

Apply a user-defined function to an entire catalog in a continuous way
lasclassify

Classify LiDAR points from source data
lasmetrics

Compute metrics for a cloud of points
lasnormalize

Subtract digital terrain model
lasclip

Clip LiDAR points
plot.lasmetrics

Plot an object of class lasmetrics in 2D
plot.lasmetrics3d

Plot voxelized LiDAR data
stdmetrics

Predefined standard metrics functions
summary.LAS

LiDAR data summary
LAScatalog-class

An S4 class to represent a set of a .las or .laz files
LASheader-class

An S4 class to represent the header read in a .las or .laz file
as.raster.lasmetrics

Transform a lasmetrics object into a spatial RasterLayer object
as.spatial

Transform a lidR object into sp object
gap_fraction_profile

Gap fraction profile
lasfilter

Return points with matching conditions
grid_canopy

Canopy surface model
lasfilters

Predefined filters
lasscanline

Retrieve individual scanline
lastrees

Individual tree segmentation
VCI

Vertical Complexity Index
LASheader

Create a LASheader object
catalog_reshape

Reshape (retile) a catalog
catalog_select

Select LAS files interactively
grid_terrain

Digital Terrain Model
grid_tincanopy

Canopy height model based on a triangulation.
lascolor

Compute the color from RGB fields
lasdecimate

Thin LiDAR data
lidrpalettes

Palettes
rumple_index

Rumple index of roughness
plot.LAS

Plot LiDAR data
set.colors

Automatic colorization
LAS

Create a LAS object
catalog_options

catalog_queries

Extract LiDAR data based on a set of coordinates
grid_metrics

Rasterize the space and compute metrics for each cell
grid_metrics3d

Voxelize the space and compute metrics for each voxel
lasflightline

Retrieve individual flightlines