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lidar2map

Offline archaeological LiDAR maps, multi-country + IGN raster/vector + OSM, for Locus Map / OsmAnd / TwoNav

A self-contained Python tool that downloads public LiDAR data from national portals across 17 countries (France, UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Czechia, Spain, Poland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia), computes relief visualizations tuned for archaeological prospection, and generates maps usable offline on a smartphone (MBTiles, RMAP, SQLiteDB, Mapsforge formats). The IGN raster/vector maps remain France-only.

The same extent under three views: aerial imagery and the OSM map show nothing of the micro-relief — the Sky-View Factor computed from the HD LiDAR reveals it instantly.

⚠️ Status: personal project, publicly released. Heavily tested on Windows 10/11. Linux and macOS tested partially — known cases + cross-OS troubleshooting in the Troubleshooting section of BUILD.md. Feedback welcome via GitHub issues.

Note: the GUI auto-detects your language (English/French, with a manual toggle) and the CLI flags and --help are in English. The former French flag names still work as aliases, so older example commands keep working.

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Is your country covered? — 17 countries with national bare-earth LiDAR (+ USA & Canada, project-based). Check your area before diving in:

Resolutions, codes and evaluated sources: see the LiDAR coverage section below.

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Who is it for?

• Amateur archaeologists interested in LiDAR prospection — the tool works across 17 countries (France, UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Norway, Belgium, Finland, Denmark, Ireland, Czechia, Spain, Poland, Canada, New Zealand, Australia) with more in progress. The relief computations (multi, SVF, LRM, RRIM) are identical from one country to the next.
• French hikers who want offline IGN topo maps on their phone (Locus Map Pro, OsmAnd+) — the IGN raster/vector tabs remain France-only.
• Landscape surveyors who combine historical orthophotos (1950-1995, France) with a DEM to spot human remains before agricultural land abandonment erases them.
• Cavers / explorers who need accurate base maps in areas not covered by mainstream apps.

The tool is not intended for metal detecting. The code strictly respects the open licenses involved (Etalab FR, CC BY 4.0 NO, CC-0 NL, BGDI CH).

What it produces

From a town, GPS coordinates, a bbox, a département or a whole region:

• Archaeological relief from national LiDAR (0.5 m to 1 m resolution depending on source):

  • Multidirectional hillshade (25° sun angle for micro-relief)
  • Configurable SVF (Sky-View Factor) — reveals ditches, terraces, enclosures. flux convention (cos²γ, more visual contrast, default) or rvt (1−sin γ, the Kokalj/Hesse archaeology standard / openness); adjustable horizon distance (10–200 m, default 20 m); display gamma; sweep-horizon kernel. Flags: --svf-conv flux|rvt, --svf-dist M, --svf-gamma G, --svf-sweep / --no-svf-sweep (or the SVF panel in the GUI).
  • LRM (Local Relief Model) — removes the natural terrain, keeps the anomalies
  • RRIM (Red Relief Image Map) — color composite (slope + LRM)

  Supported LiDAR sources (via the --provider <code> flag):

  Europe

  • France (fr-ign, default) — IGN LiDAR HD, 0.5 m, national coverage
  • Netherlands (nl-ahn) — AHN4/5, 0.5 m, national coverage
  • Switzerland (ch-swisstopo) — swissALTI3D, 0.5 m, national coverage
  • Norway (no-kartverket) — Nasjonal Høydemodell, 1 m, national coverage
  • Germany (de-nrw, de-bayern, de-niedersachsen) — DGM1, 1 m (3 Länder, open data)
  • Austria (at-tirol, at-osttirol) — DGM 0.5 m (Tyrol + East Tyrol, tiris WCS)
  • United Kingdom (gb-england, gb-wales) — LIDAR Composite DTM, 1 m (EA/NRW)
  • Belgium (be-flanders) — DHMV II DTM, 1 m, Flandre+Bruxelles (Digitaal Vlaanderen WCS) — also exposes pre-computed SVF 25 cm and multi-hillshade 25 cm
  • Finland (fi-maanmittauslaitos) — Elevation Model, 2 m, national coverage (NLS WCS, API key required)
  • Denmark (dk-datafordeler) — DHM DTM, 0.4 m, national coverage (Datafordeler WCS, API key required)
  • Ireland (ie-gsi) — LiDAR DTM, 1 m, ~60% coverage (GSI, CC BY 4.0)
  • Czechia (cz-cuzk) — DMR 5G, 1 m, national coverage (ČÚZK Atom feed; LAZ → GeoTIFF, requires lazrs)
  • Spain (es-cnig) — MDT 5 m, national coverage (IGN INSPIRE WCS). Note: 5 m = landscape scale; the bare-earth 2 m LiDAR is only behind the session-based CNIG portal (not cleanly integrable)
  • Poland (pl-gugik) — NMT 1 m LiDAR (ISOK project), national coverage (GUGiK WCS, open data)

  Americas

  • Canada (ca-nrcan) — HRDEM Mosaic, 1 m, ~95% population coverage (NRCan STAC; windowed COG reads /vsicurl/)
  • USA (us-tnm, us-3dep) — 3DEP 1 m (TNMAccess direct S3, no account; or OpenTopography with free key)

  Oceania

  • New Zealand (nz-linz) — 1 m national seamless DEM (LINZ S3 STAC; windowed COG reads)
  • Australia (au-qld, au-nsw) — Queensland 0.5 m LiDAR DEM (QSpatial) + NSW 5 m DEM (Spatial Services). Per-state coverage (ELVIS ImageServers); other states don't expose a clean statewide ImageServer

  In progress (providers drafted, not yet functional):

  • Sweden (se-lantmateriet, Lantmäteriet account required), Australia (au-ga, to be written)

• IGN raster maps (France only): Plan IGN, orthophotos (current + historical 1950, 1965, 1980), 19th-century État-Major, Pléiades satellite, CIR, etc.

• Vector maps: OSM Mapsforge .map (international, via Geofabrik) or IGN BD TOPO (France only)

• Outputs: MBTiles (universal), RMAP (CompeGPS / TwoNav), SQLiteDB (RMaps schema — Locus Map / OsmAnd), Mapsforge .map (OsmAnd / Locus)

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Installation and usage

Two ways to use lidar2map:

	A. Python script	B. Standalone executable
Requirements	Python 3.12	None
First install	~5 min (deps bootstrap)	None
Updates	git pull + relaunch	Patch the 3 existing binaries on the GitHub release in one command: python update_app.py --release (see update_app.py)
Distributable	No — each user installs Python	Yes — .exe / .app / Linux binary + zip bundle side by side
Best for	dev / Linux / contributing code	end user / Windows / distributing

A. Python script

On first launch, the script creates ~/.lidar2map/venv and installs the critical dependencies there (Pillow, pyproj, numpy, rasterio, pywebview + PyQt6/QtWebEngine…). GDAL (Windows), the Temurin 21 JRE and osmosis are downloaded on demand. ~400 MB total, once.

Windows 10+

1. Install Python 3.12+
2. Get the code:

   git clone https://github.com/nico579/lidar2map
   cd lidar2map
   python lidar2map.py

macOS 11+

brew install python@3.12
git clone https://github.com/nico579/lidar2map
cd lidar2map
python3.12 lidar2map.py

Linux (Debian / Ubuntu)

sudo apt install python3.12 python3.12-venv git
git clone https://github.com/nico579/lidar2map
cd lidar2map
python3.12 lidar2map.py

The script will ask permission to install GDAL via sudo apt install gdal-bin.

Troubleshooting: the Troubleshooting section of BUILD.md (including Linux/macOS-specific cases: PEP 668, Qt distro packages, Wayland, Gatekeeper on the JRE…).

B. Standalone executable

No Python for the end user to install. The deliverable carries its own runtime (embedded Python, deps, JRE, osmosis).

1. Get the deliverable

Option a — Download from Releases (if the version is published for your platform):

OS	Archive	Extract with
Windows 10/11 (x86_64)	lidar2map-windows-x86_64.zip	Expand-Archive (PowerShell) or double-click
Linux Ubuntu 24.04+ (x86_64)	lidar2map-linux-x86_64.tar.gz	tar xzf
macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon)	lidar2map-macos-arm64.zip	unzip then xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine LIDAR2MAP.app

The archive extracts into a lidar2map-<os>-x86_64/ folder containing the binary and its lidar2map_bundle.zip side by side. No system installation.

Option b — Build it yourself. Two scripts per platform: a machine setup (do once) then a build (re-run each time lidar2map.py is updated).

Windows

git clone https://github.com/nico579/lidar2map
cd lidar2map
.\setup_build_windows.ps1     # 1. Setup: Python 3.12, deps, JRE, osmosis, PyInstaller
.\lidar2map_win_build.ps1     # 2. Build: 3 steps -> dist\lidar2map.exe + dist\lidar2map_bundle.zip

macOS (Apple Silicon)

git clone https://github.com/nico579/lidar2map
cd lidar2map
bash setup_build_mac.sh       # 1. Setup
bash lidar2map_mac_build.sh   # 2. Build -> dist/LIDAR2MAP.app

Linux (Ubuntu / Debian)

Linux reuses the Windows specs (_win.spec produces an ELF on Linux — the name is misleading).

git clone https://github.com/nico579/lidar2map
cd lidar2map
bash setup_build_linux.sh       # 1. Setup
bash lidar2map_linux_build.sh   # 2. Build -> dist/lidar2map + dist/lidar2map_bundle.zip

Requirement: sudo apt install zip if missing. The produced binary depends on the build machine's libc (build on Ubuntu 22.04 → runs on Ubuntu ≥ 22.04 / Debian 12+).

Full build documentation (bundle architecture, updating without rebuild, troubleshooting): BUILD.md.

2. Run the deliverable

OS	Command
Windows	Double-click lidar2map.exe (or run from a terminal to see the log)
Linux	chmod +x lidar2map && ./lidar2map in the extracted folder
macOS	Double-click LIDAR2MAP.app. First launch blocked by Gatekeeper: xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine LIDAR2MAP.app then double-click
Linux	chmod +x lidar2map && ./lidar2map

The first launch extracts the bundle (~30-60 s, once — it contains Qt) into:

• Windows: %LOCALAPPDATA%\lidar2map\
• macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/lidar2map/
• Linux: ~/.local/share/lidar2map/

Clean uninstall: lidar2map(.exe) --desinstaller.

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Usage

Two modes, selected automatically based on the arguments (same logic as the twin project gpxsolar):

• No argument → graphical interface (pywebview / Qt). The common mode.
• With arguments → command-line computation (headless, no window). Handy for scripting, running on a server, or reproducing an exact render.

Everything below applies to the binary as well as the script — just replace python lidar2map.py with lidar2map.exe (Windows), ./lidar2map (Linux) or LIDAR2MAP.app (macOS).

Command-line examples

The flags below are English. The former French flag names still work as aliases, so older commands keep working.

SVF relief + IGN topo map over a town (1 km² zone around Garéoult, France):

python lidar2map.py --lidar --zone-city Gareoult --zone-radius 1 \
    --shadings multi svf --file-formats mbtiles --yes

Relief over Amsterdam (Netherlands, AHN4):

python lidar2map.py --provider nl-ahn --lidar --download \
    --zone-bbox 120000,486000,122000,488000 --zone-name amsterdam \
    --shadings multi --file-formats mbtiles --yes

Relief over Geneva (Switzerland, swissALTI3D):

python lidar2map.py --provider ch-swisstopo --lidar --download \
    --zone-city Geneve --zone-radius 1 \
    --shadings svf --file-formats mbtiles --yes

Relief over Oslo (Norway, Kartverket):

python lidar2map.py --provider no-kartverket --lidar --download \
    --zone-city Oslo --zone-radius 1 \
    --shadings multi --file-formats mbtiles --yes

Historical 1950-1965 orthophoto over an archaeological survey area:

python lidar2map.py --raster --zone-bbox 6.0,43.3,6.1,43.4 \
    --layer ortho_1950 --zoom-min 14 --zoom-max 18 --yes

OSM vector map (Mapsforge .map) for Locus, whole département:

python lidar2map.py --osm --zone-department 83 --file-formats map --yes

Whole region (--zone-region) — available for all modes:

# OSM: a single map for the whole region, no re-splitting
# (the Geofabrik PBF IS already regional — far faster than looping per département)
python lidar2map.py --osm --zone-region provence-alpes-cote-d-azur --yes

# IGN vector: paths/routes for the whole region as GeoJSON + Locus .map
python lidar2map.py --vector --zone-region provence-alpes-cote-d-azur \
    --layer chemins --file-formats gz map --yes

The slug is the one from Geofabrik France (old-style regions: provence-alpes-cote-d-azur, bretagne, corse, rhone-alpes…). In OSM the region is processed as one block (the Geofabrik file is already regional, no per-département geocoding); for the raster/vector/lidar modes the area is the bbox enclosing all the départements of the region. An unknown slug lists the available regions.

IGN BD TOPO map (roads + buildings) as compressed GeoJSON + Mapsforge .map:

python lidar2map.py --vector --zone-department 83 \
    --layer routes batiments --file-formats gz map --yes

The map format converts the IGN GeoJSON into a Mapsforge .map map (readable by Locus Map / OsmAnd).

LiDAR providers — adding a country

The provider abstraction lets you add a national LiDAR source without touching the core of the pipeline. Each provider lives in providers/<code>.py (~50-200 lines) and exposes:

NAME, CODE, COUNTRY, LICENSE          # metadata
CRS_NATIF, RESOLUTION_M, DALLE_KM     # geometry
discover_dalles(bbox_wgs, bbox_natif, cache)  # → {name: url}
# + helpers: dalle_filename, dalle_url, subdir_from_name, dalles_pour_bbox

The downstream pipeline (SVF, relief, EPSG:3857 warp, MBTiles) is provider-agnostic: it consumes the GeoTIFFs returned by discover_dalles, regardless of the native CRS or the index format used upstream.

Code	Country	Native CRS	Resolution	API paradigm
fr-ign	France	EPSG:2154 (Lambert-93)	0.5 m	Vector TMS PBF + WMS GetMap
nl-ahn	Netherlands	EPSG:28992 (RD New)	0.5 m	ATOM feed + JSON FeatureCollection
ch-swisstopo	Switzerland	EPSG:2056 (CH1903+/LV95)	0.5 m	STAC REST API
no-kartverket	Norway	EPSG:25833 (UTM33N)	1 m	ArcGIS ImageServer exportImage
de-bayern · de-nrw · de-niedersachsen	Germany (3 Länder)	EPSG:25832 (UTM32N)	1 m	metalink / index.json / STAC COG
at-tirol · at-osttirol	Austria (Tyrol)	EPSG:31254/31255 (MGI M28/M31)	0.5 m	WCS 1.0.0 GetCoverage
gb-england · gb-wales	United Kingdom	EPSG:27700 (OSGB36)	1 m	WCS 2.0.1 / WFS catalogue
be-flanders	Belgium (Flanders)	EPSG:31370 (Lambert 1972)	1 m	WCS 2.0.1 (+ pre-computed 25 cm shadings)
fi-maanmittauslaitos	Finland	EPSG:3067 (TM35FIN)	2 m	WCS 2.0.1 (free API key)
dk-datafordeler	Denmark	EPSG:25832 (UTM32N)	0.4 m	WCS 1.0.0 (free API key)
ie-gsi	Ireland	EPSG:2157 (ITM)	1 m	ArcGIS FeatureServer → ZIP (post_fetch)
cz-cuzk	Czechia	EPSG:5514 (S-JTSK/Krovak)	1 m	Atom INSPIRE 2-level → LAZ (post_fetch)
ca-nrcan	Canada	EPSG:3979 (LCC Canada)	1 m	STAC + mosaic COG (windowed read)
us-tnm · us-3dep	USA	EPSG:3857	1 m	TNMAccess S3 / OpenTopography
es-cnig	Spain	EPSG:25830 (UTM30N)	5 m	WCS 2.0.1 INSPIRE (MDT)
pl-gugik	Poland	EPSG:2180 (PUWG 1992)	1 m	WCS 2.0.1 (NMT ISOK)
nz-linz	New Zealand	EPSG:2193 (NZTM2000)	1 m	STAC + national COG (windowed read)
au-qld	Australia (Queensland)	EPSG:3857	0.5 m	ArcGIS ImageServer exportImage
au-nsw	Australia (NSW)	EPSG:3857	5 m	ArcGIS ImageServer exportImage

Selection: --provider <code> flag (CLI), LIDAR2MAP_PROVIDER env var, or the dropdown at the top of the GUI.

To add a new country: copy the provider closest in paradigm (WCS, STAC, ArcGIS ImageServer, direct COG, FeatureServer catalogue…) and adapt URLs/CRS/naming format. The first provider for a new paradigm takes ~½ day; subsequent ones with the same pattern take ~1–2 h. A provider roadmap documents ~40 evaluated sources across 25+ countries.

Main features

• Auto-bootstrap: no pre-installed dependency required. The script downloads on demand: Python deps (Pillow, pyproj, numpy, scipy), GDAL (Windows) or asks for system install (Linux/macOS), Temurin 21 JRE, osmosis, mapwriter.
• Memory streaming: département-scale processing without saturating RAM (ijson, rasterio windowed reads, tile-by-tile MBTiles generation).
• Clean cancellation: Ctrl+C once → stops after the current chunk. Ctrl+C twice → immediate stop.
• Resume after interruption: the same command resumes where it stopped, via a .json manifest that tracks completed chunks.
• Up-front splitting: for large areas, split into an N×N grid or ~K km squares (--split-radius, bounded chunk size — recommended at national scale) — useful so you don't have to regenerate the whole area if something crashes. Per-chunk disk cleanup (--cleanup) and a free-space guard (--min-free-gb) for very large coverage.
• Crash-safe history: each run is recorded at startup (status "running") then finalized to "ok" or "ko". A hard crash (kill -9, power loss) leaves the entry visible in the UI — the trace is kept for debugging.
• Multi-provider LiDAR: a providers/<code>.py abstraction that lets you plug in any LiDAR source. Shipped providers: FR (IGN), NL (AHN), CH (swisstopo), NO (Kartverket), DE (Bavaria, NRW, Lower Saxony), AT (Tyrol, East Tyrol), GB (England, Wales), BE (Flanders WCS), FI (NLS WCS), DK (Datafordeler WCS), IE (GSI catalogue), CA (NRCan STAC), NZ (LINZ S3), AU (Geoscience Australia WCS), US (3DEP 1m, no account) — covering varied API paradigms (TMS PBF, JSON FeatureCollection, STAC, ArcGIS FeatureServer/ImageServer, Metalink/index.json, per-tile WCS GetCoverage, S3 public COG). Providers can also expose pre-computed shadings (PROVIDES_SHADINGS) — the pipeline downloads them directly instead of computing from the DEM (e.g. BE Flanders SVF 25 cm, multi-hillshade 25 cm). Adding a country = ~100–150 lines (see LiDAR coverage & evaluated sources below).
• Interactive GUI: 6 tabs (LiDAR, IGN raster, IGN vector, OSM, Merge, Splitting), provider selector at the top of the form (IGN Raster/Vector tabs hidden automatically for non-FR providers), history of the last 50 commands with status badges, parameter validation, live log, error modal.
• Historical orthophoto maps: a unique combo for archaeology — SVF 2024 (current LiDAR) + 1950 ortho (before land abandonment) → reveals structures still legible 70 years later.

LiDAR coverage & evaluated sources

The colour map is at the top of the README. Interactive version (click = NAME + code):

🗺️ Interactive coverage map — rendered directly by GitHub, or droppable into geojson.io / QGIS to test a point.

Countries on the map (national bare-earth LiDAR): France · Netherlands · Switzerland · Norway · Germany (Bavaria · NRW · Lower Saxony) · Austria (Tyrol) · United Kingdom (England · Wales) · Belgium (Flanders) · Finland · Denmark · Ireland · Czechia · Spain (5 m) · Poland · New Zealand · Australia (Queensland 0.5 m · NSW 5 m). Resolutions 0.5–1 m unless noted — see the provider list above for codes and details.

The map is regenerated by coverage_map.py, which reads zone titles from providers/*.py — so the map and the GUI can't drift. Clicking a zone in the interactive GeoJSON shows its NAME and code(s).

🇺🇸 USA & 🇨🇦 Canada — supported and working, just not drawn. us-tnm / us-3dep (3DEP 1 m) and ca-nrcan (HRDEM 1 m) are fully functional, but their coverage is project/population-based (not wall-to-wall national), so a full-country polygon would over-claim — hence the note rather than a shape. Check your US area on the TNM Downloader. The USGS 1 m tiles are 10×10 km COGs, read windowed to your bbox via /vsicurl/ — no full-tile download.

🇧🇪 Belgium (Flanders): a bonus — the WCS also exposes DHMV_II_SVF_25cm (Sky-View Factor at 25 cm, 16 directions, r=2.5 m) and DHMV_II_HILL_25cm (multidirectional hillshade at 25 cm, pre-computed by Digitaal Vlaanderen). When one of those shadings is requested, lidar2map downloads it directly instead of computing it from the 1 m DEM — both faster and at higher resolution.

A source plugs in cleanly when it exposes deterministic tiles (one URL per ~1 km tile), a WCS (GetCoverage by bbox), mosaic COGs (windowed /vsicurl/ read on the bbox, see ca-nrcan) or LAZ/ZIP tiles (post_fetch hook: unzip + point-cloud→GeoTIFF via laspy+lazrs, see cz-cuzk, ie-gsi). Still a poor fit: sources via form/email order, WMS only (rendered, no raw elevation) or ASC without a CRS.

Sources evaluated but not retained so far (documented to avoid re-digging):

Source	Reason
DE — BKG national DGM1	paid (≥ €8,000)
DE — Saxony-Anhalt	WCS GetCoverage returns 500 ; download = 4 large blocks
DE — Thuringia / Saxony	no documented clean programmatic access (portal)
DE — Baden-Württemberg	XYZ (ASCII) + JS portal, no clear tiled GeoTIFF
AT — BEV national	50 km tiles via portal
AT — Vorarlberg	WMS only (no raw elevation)
ES — CNIG MDT02	LAZ blocks + 2 m (coarse) — needs post_fetch LAZ→GeoTIFF (PDAL)
SE — Lantmäteriet	LAZ tiles (CC0) — needs post_fetch LAZ→GeoTIFF (PDAL)
CZ — ČÚZK DMR 5G	LAZ zipped — needs post_fetch LAZ→GeoTIFF (PDAL)
BE — Wallonia	0.5 m but large provincial blocks; WCS availability unconfirmed
GB — Scotland	per-phase fragmentation; AWS S3 accessible but index complex
IT — Aosta Valley / regions	portal order form
IT — South Tyrol	0.5 m built-up areas only / 2.5 m elsewhere
SI — Slovenia (ARSO)	ASC without CRS + per-block index
LV — LGIA	DTM/DSM 0.4 m; download API not publicly accessible (WMS only)
PT — DGT	0.5 m national 2024; API to be validated

Germany is covered as far as cleanly possible (3 clean states + Tyrol on the Alps side); the remaining states have no clean programmatic access so far (see table). This table is maintained by hand as sources are probed — it exists to avoid re-digging the same dead ends.

Screenshots

Graphical interface

Six tabs to drive LiDAR, IGN raster/vector, OSM, merge and splitting.

HD LiDAR (archaeological relief)	IGN raster (Plan / ortho / historical)	IGN vector (BD TOPO)

OSM vector (Mapsforge)	Vector merge	Raster splitting

Rendering in Locus Map

Archaeological LiDAR relief shown as an overlay on the terrain in Locus Map.

SVF (Sky-View Factor)	Multi-hillshade overlay

What SVF reveals — same area, three sources

Under tree cover, the aerial photo and OSM show nothing. The LiDAR SVF makes the terraces (dry-stone restanques) and old paths appear — invisible from above.

Satellite photo	OSM	SVF (HD LiDAR)
Opaque scrubland	Almost no detail	Crisp terraces + paths

Reproducing this render

The header SVF and the triptych above (Rougiers area, dép. 83, France) were computed with:

python lidar2map.py \
  --zone-gps <lat> <lon> --zone-radius 1 --zone-name hero \
  --lidar --download --workers 8 \
  --shadings svf --shading-elevation 25 \
  --svf-conv rvt --svf-dist 20 --svf-gamma 0.8 --svf-sweep \
  --file-formats mbtiles --zoom-min 8 --zoom-max 18 \
  --image-format jpeg --image-quality 85 --yes

Replace <lat> <lon> with your own area; the SVF parameters above are the ones used for the visual. The exact coordinates of a micro-relief are deliberately not published (ethics: do not guide anyone toward a specific site — see the anti-detecting disclaimer above).

Documentation

• User README: this file
• Build & deployment: BUILD.md — bundle architecture, per-OS build scripts, updating without rebuild, troubleshooting (including Linux- and macOS-specific cases)
• Built-in help: python lidar2map.py --help (LiDAR), --raster --help (raster), --vector --help (vector), --osm --help, --merge --help

License

Code distributed under the GNU General Public License v3.0 — see LICENSE.

You are free to use, modify and redistribute this software under the terms of the GPL v3. In particular: if you redistribute a modified version, you must provide the modified source code under the same license.

Author

Designed and architected by Nicolas Martin (@nico579). Code developed with the assistance of Claude (Anthropic) as a development tool.

Acknowledgements

Data used:

• IGN (French National Institute of Geographic and Forest Information) — LiDAR HD, BD ORTHO (including the historical 1950-1995 versions), BD TOPO, under the Etalab 2.0 license
• AHN (Actueel Hoogtebestand Nederland) — AHN4/5 0.5m (Netherlands), CC BY 4.0
• swisstopo (Swiss Federal Office of Topography) — swissALTI3D 0.5m (Switzerland), free open data © swisstopo
• Kartverket — Nasjonal Høydemodell 1m (Norway), CC BY 4.0
• Geobasis NRW · LDBV Bayern · LGLN Niedersachsen — DGM1 1m (Germany, 3 Länder), Datenlizenz Deutschland Namensnennung 2.0
• Land Tirol (tiris) — DGM 0.5m (Austria, Tyrol), CC BY 4.0
• Environment Agency (England) & DataMapWales / Natural Resources Wales — LIDAR Composite DTM 1m (UK), Open Government Licence v3
• USGS — 3DEP / The National Map 1m (USA), public domain
• Digitaal Vlaanderen — DHMV II DTM/SVF/Hillshade (Belgium Flanders), Open Data Licentie Vlaanderen
• Maanmittauslaitos — Elevation Model 2m (Finland), CC BY 4.0
• Klimadatastyrelsen / Datafordeler — DHM DTM 0.4m (Denmark), CC BY
• Geological Survey Ireland — LiDAR DTM 1m (Ireland), CC BY 4.0
• Natural Resources Canada — HRDEM Mosaic 1m (Canada), Open Government Licence
• ČÚZK (Czech Office for Surveying, Mapping and Cadastre) — DMR 5G 1m (Czechia), Open Data
• IGN España / CNIG — MDT 5m (Spain), CC BY 4.0
• GUGiK (Polish Head Office of Geodesy and Cartography) — NMT 1m LiDAR ISOK (Poland), open data
• LINZ (Land Information New Zealand) — 1m DEM (New Zealand), CC BY 4.0
• QSpatial (State of Queensland) & Spatial Services NSW — 0.5m / 5m DEM (Australia), CC BY 4.0
• OpenStreetMap — vector data under the ODbL license, distributed by Geofabrik
• Apache JMapsforge / mapsforge-map-writer — offline vector rendering engine

Bundled tools: GDAL, osmosis, py7zr, pyproj, numpy, scipy, Pillow, ijson, pywebview.