Identifying the surface materials of the existing environment through point cloud data attributes

The prospective application of 3D laser data scanning provides numerous possibilities for investigating environmental performances for architectural design. One of the possibilities includes the practical usability of point cloud data in examining the existing environment. Exploiting this potential would help to increase the information on properties of the real context, which currently often lack during the conceptual design process. As part of this general goal, this research particularly investigates the potentials of the surface attributes contained in the point cloud data such as color, position, and intensity information. The extraction of this information allows mapping of the distribution of surface materials of the existing environment by considering the intensity and the albedo values. The outcome of the research constitutes a catalogue of surface materials that are useful for architects as a decision support environments. In parallel with computational design flow, this research ultimately aims at delivering a novel method for architects to perform site analysis comprehensively