Lidar can effectively obtain three-dimensional information on ground objects. In recent years, lidar has developed rapidly from single-wavelength to multispectral hyperspectral imaging. The multispectral airborne lidar Optech Titan is the first commercial system that can collect point cloud data on 1550, 1064, and 532 nm channels. This study proposes a method of point cloud segmentation in the preprocessed intensity interpolation process to solve the problem of inaccurate intensity at the boundary during point cloud interpolation. The entire experiment consists of three steps. First, a multispectral lidar point cloud is obtained using point cloud segmentation and intensity interpolation; the spatial dimension advantage of the multispectral point cloud is used to improve the accuracy of spectral information interpolation. Second, point clouds are divided into eight categories by constructing geometric information, spectral reflectance information, and spectral characteristics. Accuracy evaluation and contribution analysis are also conducted through point cloud truth value and classification results. Lastly, the spatial dimension information is enhanced by point cloud drop sampling, the method is used to solve the error caused by airborne scanning and single-tree extraction of urban trees. Classification results showed that point cloud segmentation before intensity interpolation can effectively improve the interpolation and classification accuracies. The total classification accuracy of the data is improved by 3.7%. Compared with the extraction result (377) of single wood without subsampling treatment, the result of the urban tree extraction proved the effectiveness of the proposed method with a subsampling algorithm in improving the accuracy. Accordingly, the problem of over-segmentation is solved, and the final single-wood extraction result (329) is markedly consistent with the real situation of the region.

Airborne hyperspectral LiDAR (AHSL) is a technology that integrates the spectral content collected using hyperspectral imaging and the precise 3D descriptions of observed objects obtained using LiDAR (light detection and ranging). AHSL detects the spectral and three-dimensional (3D) information on an object simply using laser measurements. Nevertheless, the advantageous richness of spectral properties also introduces novel issues into the scan unit, the mechanical–optical trade-off. Specifically, the abundant spectral information requires a larger optical aperture, limiting the acceptance of the mechanic load by the scan unit at a demanding rotation speed and flight height. Via the simulation and analysis of scan models, it is exhibited that Palmer scans fit the large optical aperture required by AHSL best. Furthermore, based on the simulation of the Palmer scan model, 45.23% is explored as the optimized ratio of overlap (ROP) for minimizing the diversity of the point density, with a reduction in the coefficient of variation (CV) from 0.47 to 0.19. The other issue is that it is intricate to calibrate the scanning geometry using outside devices due to the complex optical path. A self-calibration strategy is proposed for tackling this problem, which integrates indoor laser vector retrieval and airborne orientation correction. The strategy is composed of the following three improvements: (1) A self-determined laser vector retrieval strategy that utilizes the self-ranging feature of AHSL itself is proposed for retrieving the initial scanning laser vectors with a precision of 0.874 mrad. (2) A linear residual estimated interpolation method (LREI) is proposed for enhancing the precision of the interpolation, reducing the RMSE from 1.517 mrad to 0.977 mrad. Compared to the linear interpolation method, LREI maintains the geometric features of Palmer scanning traces. (3) A least-deviated flatness restricted optimization (LDFO) algorithm is used to calibrate the angle offset in aerial scanning point cloud data, which reduces the standard deviation in the flatness of the scanning plane from 1.389 m to 0.241 m and reduces the distortion of the scanning strip. This study provides a practical scanning method and a corresponding calibration strategy for AHSL.