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Understanding earth surface processes relies on modern digital terrain representations and depends strongly on the quality of the topographic data. In the last decade, a range of new remote sensing techniques has led to a dramatic increase in terrain information. Both Terrestrial Laser Scanner (TLS) and Airborne Laser Swath Mapping technology (ALSM), using LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) technology, now provide high resolution topographic data with notable advantages over traditional survey techniques. A valuable characteristic of these technologies is their capability to produce sub-meter resolution Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), and high-quality land cover information (Digital Surface Models, DSMs) over large areas. New topographic data have opened avenues for hydrologic and geomorphologic studies including analysis of surface morphology (Staley et al., 2006; Frankel and Dolan, 2007 …