Using the LiDAR Map

After opening the link to the LiDAR map, see the gray box overlaying the map. Click the OK button.

You then see a portion of the state of New Hampshire, with labeled cities, town and counties and a lot of red stone wall symbols. You need to customize that map to see a LiDAR version. At the top of the left side of the map you’ll see some symbols. Click on the middle symbol (it looks like a pile of layers/sheets.)

When the “Layer list” opens, uncheck the NH Stone Wall box by clicking on it. Note that the red stone wall symbols are gone from the map.

Make sure the City/Town box is checked.

Put a check in the NH DOT Roads box by clicking on that box.

Move down to the seventh check box “LiDAR Hillshade (NE)” and click on that box.

Notice that the map of New Hampshire becomes bumpy gray. This is the New Hampshire LiDAR map. It was obtained by flying over the state and capturing a light detection and radar image of the land surface…right down through the trees and buildings, so you are seeing the actual shape of the present land surface. Put your cursor over the city of Concord and scroll in slowly. You can drag the LiDAR map around to find places and scroll in for a closer view. Find Contoocook. As you scroll in and out and drag the map around, you will see that most of the land surface features are lined up roughly northwest – southeast, the direction from which the last advance of the Pleistocene ice sheet flowed over New Hampshire.