Abstract
Forest operations can cause long-term soil disturbance, leading to environmental and economic losses. Mobile LiDAR technology has become increasingly popular in forest management for mapping and monitoring disturbances. Low-cost mobile LiDAR technology, in particular, has attracted significant attention due to its potential cost-effectiveness, ease of use, and ability to capture high-resolution data. The LiDAR technology, which is integrated in the iPhone 13–14 Pro Max series, has the potential to provide high accuracy and precision data at a low cost, but there are still questions on how this will perform in comparison to professional scanners. In this study, an iPhone 13 Pro Max equipped with SiteScape and 3D Scanner apps, and the GeoSlam Zeb Revo scanner were used to collect and generate point cloud datasets for comparison in four plots showing variability in soil disturbance and local topography. The data obtained from the LiDAR devices were analyzed in CloudCompare using the Iterative Closest Point (ICP) and Least Square Plane (LSP) methods of cloud-to-cloud comparisons (C2C) to estimate the accuracy and intercloud precision of the LiDAR technology. The results showed that the low-cost mobile LiDAR technology was able to provide accurate and precise data for estimating soil disturbance using both the ICP and LSP methods. Taking as a reference the point clouds collected with the Zeb Revo scanner, the accuracy of data derived with SiteScape and 3D Scanner apps varied from RMS = 0.016 to 0.035 m, and from RMS = 0.017 to 0.025 m, respectively. This was comparable to the precision or repeatability of the professional LiDAR instrument, Zeb Revo (RMS = 0.019–0.023 m). The intercloud precision of the data generated with SiteScape and 3D Scanner apps varied from RMS = 0.015 to 0.017 m and from RMS = 0.012 to 0.014 m, respectively, and were comparable to the precision of Zeb Revo measurements (RMS = 0.019–0.023 m). Overall, the use of low-cost mobile LiDAR technology fits well to the requirements to map and monitor soil disturbances and it provides a cost-effective and efficient way to gather high resolution data, which can assist the sustainable forest management practices.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.