If you have a LiDAR dataset with first return that has buildings/structures represented, is it typical or physically more robust modeling to include them in the terrain dataset. Our current LiDAR dataset is bare earth so I would have to burn them into the bare earth.
It depends on how you are trying to account for the buildings. If you use a roughness value to account for buildings, it will also account for some of the storage in the building. If you use the buildings themselves in the terrain, you will lose that storage. There are many other reasons to include them or not, it just depends on the purpose of the study.