Abstract
Detailed modeling of floodplain flows and associated processes requires data on mixed, heterogeneous vegetation at river reach scale, though the collection of vegetation data is typically limited in resolution or lack spatial information. This study investigates physically-based characterization of mixed floodplain vegetation by means of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). The work aimed at developing an approach for deriving the characteristic reference areas of herbaceous and foliated woody vegetation, and estimating the vertical distribution of woody vegetation. Detailed experimental data on vegetation properties were gathered both in a floodplain site for herbaceous vegetation, and under laboratory conditions for 2–3 m tall trees. The total plant area (Atot) of woody vegetation correlated linearly with the TLS-based voxel count, whereas the Atot of herbaceous vegetation showed a linear correlation with TLS-based vegetation mean height. For woody vegetation, 1 cm voxel size was found suitable for estimating both the Atot and its vertical distribution. A new concept was proposed for deriving Atot for larger areas from the point cloud attributes of small sub-areas. The results indicated that the relationships between the TLS attributes and Atot of the sub-areas can be derived either by mm resolution TLS or by manual vegetation sampling.
Highlights
Vegetation influences flow of water in rivers and floodplains with implications on many physical, chemical, and biological processes (e.g., [1,2])
In the context of modeling floodplain flows, a new experimental dataset on characteristic vegetation areas was derived by terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and evaluated against comprehensive manual measurements
An approach was developed to relate attributes of the TLS data and the vegetation characteristics of small sub-areas to enable upscaling to larger areas of similar vegetation type
Summary
Vegetation influences flow of water in rivers and floodplains with implications on many physical, chemical, and biological processes (e.g., [1,2]). In the context of flood flow analyses, vegetation is a critical factor in determining hydraulic resistance and water levels [3,4,5]. In environmentally sensitive engineering practices, vegetation is used for riverbank stabilization, increasing biodiversity, and forming riparian buffer zones, where the monitoring of vegetation structure and diversity is essential for improving future practices [6]. For the monitoring and modeling of riverine environments and floodplain flows, vegetation characteristics describing the structure and distribution of vegetation are needed. Physically-based parameterization of complex natural vegetation is essential in developing reliable hydro-environmental models [3]
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