Abstract
A method of counting the number of coniferous trees by species within forest compartments was developed by combining an individual tree crown delineation technique with a treetop detection technique, using high spatial resolution optical sensor data. When this method was verified against field data from the Shinshu University Campus Forest composed of various cover types, the accuracy for the total number of trees per stand was higher than 84%. This shows improvements over the individual tree crown delineation technique alone which had accuracies lower than 62%, or the treetop detection technique alone which had accuracies lower than 78%. However, the accuracy of the number of trees classified by species was less than 84%. The total number of trees by species per stand was improved with exclusion of the understory species and ranged from 45.2% to 93.8% for Chamaecyparis obtusa and C. pisifera and from 37.9% to 98.1% for broad-leaved trees because many of these were understory species. The better overall results are attributable primarily to the overestimation of Pinus densiflora, Larix kaempferi and broad-leaved trees compensating for the underestimation of C. obtusa and C. pisifera. Practical forest management can be enhanced by registering the output resulting from this technology in a forest geographical information system database. This approach is mostly useful for conifer plantations containing medium to old age trees, which have a higher timber value.
Highlights
Forests in Japan cover approximately 25.10 million ha or 66% of the total land area
These results show that the numbers of tree by species determined by the new treetop technique were less accurate than the total number of trees using the new technique
A method of counting the number of coniferous trees by species within forest compartments was developed by combining homogeneity-guided smoothing with tree detection, crown delineation and crown classification using high resolution four band airborne digital data
Summary
Forests in Japan cover approximately 25.10 million ha or 66% of the total land area. Of these, million ha (~40%) are artificial and plantations over 50 years account for about 35% of this area.The majority of plantations are dominated by conifers, with Cryptomeria japonica (Japanese Cedar), Chamaecyparis obtuse (Hinoki cypress), Chamaecyparis pisifera (Sawara cypress), Pinus densiflora (Japanese red pine), and Larix kaempferi (Japanese larch) being commonplace. Forests in Japan cover approximately 25.10 million ha or 66% of the total land area. Million ha (~40%) are artificial and plantations over 50 years account for about 35% of this area. The majority of plantations are dominated by conifers, with Cryptomeria japonica (Japanese Cedar), Chamaecyparis obtuse (Hinoki cypress), Chamaecyparis pisifera (Sawara cypress), Pinus densiflora (Japanese red pine), and Larix kaempferi (Japanese larch) being commonplace. Plantations aged between 31 and 60 years are managed by thinning or selective cutting or are harvested for timber, biomass and provision of clean energy [1]. Forest officers and landowners require accurate information on the number and distribution of tree species to support management of their plantation resources. The number of trees and distribution of each tree species are basic information that can be used to evaluate current stand conditions in forest management
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