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Lidar (Light Detection And Ranging) is a breakthrough technology for forestry applications, as it allows precise estimates of terrain and tree heights to be obtained from aircraft. Lidar instruments have demonstrated the capability to precisely estimate important forest structural characteristics such as terrain variation, canopy heights, Leaf Area Index, stand volume, basal area and aboveground biomass. In addition, a unique ground based lidar system is being developed as a collaborative project between Ensis and CSIRO Marine and Atmospheric Research for field based forest structural assessment. The Ensis Remote Sensing group has also developed the Lidar Surfacing Toolset, which generates surfaces, extracts point clouds and manages large airborne lidar dataset.
Canopy Laser Radar Systems for Native and Plantation Forest Inventory
This project focused on validating and promoting the use of airborne and ground based lidar technologies as tools in forest inventory programs in Australian plantation and native forests. It involved testing the accuracy and value of the data against conventional inventory and other field measurements.
A number of innovative processing algorithms were tested in plantation forestry settings using commercially available airborne lidar data. The study also incorporated a detailed evaluation of the CSIRO’s ECHIDNA® ground-based scanning lidar. The ECHIDNA® was tested at a range of forest sites and the resulting estimates compared to measurements recorded using traditional techniques.
Key outcomes from this study were:
- Simple variables available from airborne lidar data correlate well with a range of inventory and site quality parameters;
- ECHIDNA® can provide a plot-based assessment of stem characteristics suitable for estimating volume by size class;
- Multi-angular analysis of ECHIDNA® data allows estimates of canopy structural parameters including leaf area index and canopy height; and
- ECHIDNA® derived allometric equations can be integrated with broad scale airborne lidar data to provide plot-equivalent structural mapping over large geographical areas.
The hardware and software validation undertaken in this project has significantly reduced the technology risk associated with the commercial and operational use of lidar in Australian forestry.
The project report can be found on the FWPRDC webpage.
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The 3-PG (Physiological Processes Predicting Growth) model has been developed in a deliberate attempt to bridge the gap between conventional, growth and yield, and process-based carbon balance models. The 3-PG model produces outputs that are of high importance to forest managers, such as stand volume, diameter and stocking. Our team has developed the 3-PG Toolbox which plugs into ArcMap, producing a complete modelling and processing environment.