https://biblio.ugent.be/publication/8675721/file/8679080.pdf

Terrestrial laser scanning in forest ecology: Expanding the horizon

Quantitative comparisons of tree height observations from different sources are scarce due to the difficulties in effective sampling. In this study, the reliability and robustness of tree height observations obtained via a conventional field inventory, airborne laser scanning (ALS) and terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) were investigated. A carefully designed non-destructive experiment was conducted that included 1174 individual trees in 18 sample plots (32 m × 32 m) in a Scandinavian boreal forest. The point density of the ALS data was approximately 450 points/m2. The TLS data were acquired with multi-scans from the center and the four quadrant directions of the sample plots. Both the ALS and TLS data represented the cutting edge point cloud products. Tree heights were manually measured from the ALS and TLS point clouds with the aid of existing tree maps. Therefore, the evaluation results revealed the capacities of the applied laser scanning (LS) data while excluding the influence of data processing approach such as the individual tree detection. The reliability and robustness of different tree height sources were evaluated through a cross-comparison of the ALS-, TLS-, and field- based tree heights. Compared to ALS and TLS, field measurements were more sensitive to stand complexity, crown classes, and species. Overall, field measurements tend to overestimate height of tall trees, especially tall trees in codominant crown class. In dense stands, high uncertainties also exist in the field measured heights for small trees in intermediate and suppressed crown class. The ALS-based tree height estimates were robust across all stand conditions. The taller the tree, the more reliable was the ALS-based tree height. The highest uncertainty in ALS-based tree heights came from trees in intermediate crown class, due to the difficulty of identifying treetops. When using TLS, reliable tree heights can be expected for trees lower than 15–20 m in height, depending on the complexity of forest stands. The advantage of LS systems was the robustness of the geometric accuracy of the data. The greatest challenges of the LS techniques in measuring individual tree heights lie in the occlusion effects, which lead to omissions of trees in intermediate and suppressed crown classes in ALS data and incomplete crowns of tall trees in TLS data.

https://research.aalto.fi/files/30191468/1_s2.0_S0924271618303046_main.pdf

Is field-measured tree height as reliable as believed – A comparison study of tree height estimates from field measurement, airborne laser scanning and terrestrial laser scanning in a boreal forest

The measurement of tree height has long been an important tree attribute for the purpose of calculating tree growth, volume, and biomass, which in turn deliver important ecological and economical information to decision makers. Tree height has traditionally been measured by indirect field-based techniques, however these methods are rarely contested. With recent advances in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) remote sensing technologies, the possibility to acquire accurate tree heights semi-automatically has become a reality. In this study, photogrammetric and field-based tree height measurements of a Scots Pine stand were validated using destructive methods. The intensive forest monitoring site implemented for the study was configured with permanent ground control points (GCPs) measured with a Total Station (TS). Field-based tree height measurements resulted in a similar level of error to that of the photogrammetric measurements, with root mean square error (RMSE) values of 0.304 m (1.82%) and 0.34 m (2.07%), respectively (n = 34). A conflicting bias was, however, discovered where field measurements tended to overestimate tree heights and photogrammetric measurements were underestimated. The photogrammetric tree height measurements of all trees (n = 285) were validated against the field-based measurements and resulted in a RMSE of 0.479 m (2.78%). Additionally, two separate photogrammetric tree height datasets were compared (n = 251), and a very low amount of error was observed with a RMSE of 0.138 m (0.79%), suggesting a high potential for repeatability. This study shows that UAV photogrammetric tree height measurements are a viable option for intensive forest monitoring plots and that the possibility to acquire within-season tree growth measurements merits further study. Additionally, it was shown that negative and positive biases evident in field-based and UAV-based photogrammetric tree height measurements could potentially lead to misinterpretation of results when field-based measurements are used as validation.

UAV-Based Photogrammetric Tree Height Measurement for Intensive Forest Monitoring

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1186/s40663-019-0173-3.pdf

Forest in situ observations using unmanned aerial vehicle as an alternative of terrestrial measurements

Tree stem detection is a key step toward retrieving detailed stem attributes from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data. Various point-based methods have been proposed for the stem point extraction at both individual tree and plot levels. The main limitation of the point-based methods is their high computing demand when dealing with plot-level TLS data. Although segment-based methods can reduce the computational burden and uncertainties of point cloud classification, its application is largely limited to urban scenes due to the complexity of the algorithm, as well as the conditions of natural forests. Here we propose a novel and simple segment-based method for efficient stem detection at the plot level, which is based on the curvature feature of the points and connected component segmentation. We tested our method using a public TLS dataset with six forest plots that were collected for the international TLS benchmarking project in Evo, Finland. Results showed that the mean accuracies of the stem point extraction were comparable to the state-of-art methods (>95%). The accuracies of the stem mappings were also comparable to the methods tested in the international TLS benchmarking project. Additionally, our method was applicable to a wide range of stem forms. In short, the proposed method is accurate and simple; it is a sensible solution for the stem detection of standing trees using TLS data.

/pdf/a-novel-approach-for-the-detection-of-standing-tree-stems-g8g6ed68gy.pdf

A Novel Approach for the Detection of Standing Tree Stems from Plot-Level Terrestrial Laser Scanning Data

The last two decades have witnessed increasing awareness of the potential of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) in forest applications in both public and commercial sectors, along with tremendous research efforts and progress. It is time to inspect the achievements of and the remaining barriers to TLS-based forest investigations, so further research and application are clearly orientated in operational uses of TLS. In such context, the international TLS benchmarking project was launched in 2014 by the European Spatial Data Research Organization and coordinated by the Finnish Geospatial Research Institute. The main objectives of this benchmarking study are to evaluate the potential of applying TLS in characterizing forests, to clarify the strengths and the weaknesses of TLS as a measure of forest digitization, and to reveal the capability of recent algorithms for tree-attribute extraction. The project is designed to benchmark the TLS algorithms by processing identical TLS datasets for a standardized set of forest attribute criteria and by evaluating the results through a common procedure respecting reliable references. Benchmarking results reflect large variances in estimating accuracies, which were unveiled through the 18 compared algorithms and through the evaluation framework, i.e., forest complexity categories, TLS data acquisition approaches, tree attributes and evaluation procedures. The evaluation framework includes three new criteria proposed in this benchmarking and the algorithm performances are investigated through combining two or more criteria (e.g., the accuracy of the individual tree attributes are inspected in conjunction with plot-level completeness) in order to reveal algorithms’ overall performance. The results also reveal some best available forest attribute estimates at this time, which clarify the status quo of TLS-based forest investigations. Some results are well expected, while some are new, e.g., the variances of estimating accuracies between single-/multi-scan, the principle of the algorithm designs and the possibility of a computer outperforming human operation. With single-scan data, i.e., one hemispherical scan per plot, most of the recent algorithms are capable of achieving stem detection with approximately 75% completeness and 90% correctness in the easy forest stands (easy plots: 600 stems/ha, 20 cm mean DBH). The detection rate decreases when the stem density increases and the average DBH decreases, i.e., 60% completeness with 90% correctness (medium plots: 1000 stem/ha, 15 cm mean DBH) and 30% completeness with 90% correctness (difficult plots: 2000 stems/ha, 10 cm mean DBH). The application of the multi-scan approach, i.e., five scans per plot at the center and four quadrant angles, is more effective in complex stands, increasing the completeness to approximately 90% for medium plots and to approximately 70% for difficult plots, with almost 100% correctness. The results of this benchmarking also show that the TLS-based approaches can provide the estimates of the DBH and the stem curve at a 1–2 cm accuracy that are close to what is required in practical applications, e.g., national forest inventories (NFIs). In terms of algorithm development, a high level of automation is a commonly shared standard, but a bottleneck occurs at stem detection and tree height estimation, especially in multilayer and dense forest stands. The greatest challenge is that even with the multi-scan approach, it is still hard to completely and accurately record stems of all trees in a plot due to the occlusion effects of the trees and bushes in forests. Future development must address the redundant yet incomplete point clouds of forest sample plots and recognize trees more accurately and efficiently. It is worth noting that TLS currently provides the best quality terrestrial point clouds in comparison with all other technologies, meaning that all the benchmarks labeled in this paper can also serve as a reference for other terrestrial point clouds sources.

https://www.research.unipd.it/bitstream/11577/3285190/1/2018_pirotti_isprsjournal2.pdf

Jose Poveda-Lopez

Papers

International benchmarking of terrestrial laser scanning approaches for forest inventories