Forest carbon measurement is the wedge, because it is urgent, measurable, and already monetised through MRV. But a global, repeatable LiDAR monitoring capability would function as a general-purpose measurement layer for many sectors that depend on accurate 3D understanding of Earth’s surface.
The key point is that these markets do not require us to invent new behaviour. They already spend heavily on mapping, risk, compliance, and operational planning. What they lack is consistent, high-fidelity, frequently refreshed 3D ground truth.
Source: https://climateactionmerribek.org/2024/03/27/threats-to-healthcare-finance-and-infrastructure-revealed-by-first-national-climate-risk-assessment/
Insurers and reinsurers are already absorbing climate volatility as a balance-sheet reality, with annual insured catastrophe losses repeatedly exceeding $100B in recent years and projected to remain at that scale. This is only a fraction of the broader industry, which wrote about $7.19 trillion in direct premiums in 2023 across all lines of business. A major proportion of this is at risk with accelerating climate change.
The bottleneck is not awareness, it is site-specific hazard exposure: elevation, vegetation, defensible space, drainage, coastal vulnerability, and asset-level risk features. Global LiDAR enables:
This is a direct line from measurement to premium accuracy, loss ratio control, and resilience investment.
Source: https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/ncoic-brief-final-slides-21-jun10dlb/4626739#4
Modern defence increasingly depends on 3D GEOINT: terrain and surface structure for mission planning, base resilience, mobility, line-of-sight, and infrastructure assessment.
Even if carbon markets justify the system, defence demand is structurally durable because it values:
The broader “defence geospatial” spend is large (often counted as a category spanning tools, services, and data). In the US alone, the secretive National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is expected to have a budget >$10 billion per year, and is only one of multiple national security geospatial organisations. The NRO has explicitly asked for LiDAR data in their ongoing commercial solutions offering.
The immediate takeaway for this paper: LiDAR reduces uncertainty in the physical world, which is the substrate for defence planning and preparedness.
Source: https://data.melbourne.vic.gov.au/explore/dataset/city-of-melbourne-3d-point-cloud-2018/information/
Cities and infrastructure owners are moving toward 3D “digital twin” workflows for design, maintenance, climate adaptation, and emergency planning. The global 3D mapping & modelling market is already measured in the single-digit billions annually, with strong growth projections.
A global LiDAR layer strengthens:
In practice, this becomes “base map infrastructure”: once it exists, many applications stack on top.
Source: https://geospatial.chcnav.com/about/news/2024/lidar-mapping-in-open---pit-mining--pioneering-efficiency-and-safety
Sectors that manage land at scale already pay for 3D truth, but today it is fragmented and episodic (airborne campaigns, local surveys):
These are not speculative use cases; they are existing operational activities that become cheaper, safer, and more defensible when the measurement layer is reliable and frequently updated.
The unifying theme across these markets is simple:
So while forest carbon is the cleanest entry point, a global LiDAR capability should be framed as multi-sector climate and security infrastructure: carbon makes it necessary; everything else makes it inevitable.