Use of Airborne LiDAR To Estimate Forest Stand Characteristics

35th International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment

地球科学;生态环境科学

Li, Qi^1 ; Zhou, Wei^1 ; Li, Chang^2

Institute of Remote Sensing and Digital Earth, Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.9 Dengzhuang South Road Haidian District, Beijing 100094, China^1

College of Urban and Environmental Science, HuaZhong Normal University, 152 Luoyu Road, Wuhan 430079, China^2

关键词: Biophysical parameters;    Breakthrough technology;    Data storage capacity;    Forest canopy structure;    Forestry applications;    Structural characteristics;    Sub-canopy topographies;    Vegetation reflectivity;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1755-1315/17/1/012252/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1755-1315/17/1/012252

学科分类：环境科学（综合）

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Small-Footprint Airborne LiDAR(light detection and ranging) remote sensing is a breakthrough technology for deriving forest canopy structural characteristics. Because the technique is relatively new as applied to canopy measurement in China, there is a tremendous need for experiments that integrate field work, LiDAR remote sensing and subsequent analyses for retrieving the full complement of structural measures critical for forestry applications. Data storage capacity and high processing speed available today have made it possible to digitally sample and store the entire reflected waveform, instead of only extracting the discrete coordinates which form the so-called point clouds. Return waveforms can give more detailed insights into the vertical structure of surface objects, surface slope, roughness and reflectivity than the conventional echoes. In this paper, an improved Expectation Maximum (EM) algorithm is adopted to decompose raw waveform data. Derived forest biophysical parameters, such as vegetation height, subcanopy topography, crown volume, ground reflectivity, vegetation reflectivity and canopy closure, are able to describe the horizontal and vertical forest canopy structure.