Possibilities of a Personal Laser Scanning System for Forest Mapping and Ecosystem Services

Xinlian Liang,Antero Kukko,Anttoni Jaakkola,Harri Kaartinen,Yunsheng Wang,Xiaowei Yu,Juha Hyyppä

doi:10.3390/s140101228

Xinlian Liang, Antero Kukko + Show 5 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/s140101228

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Journal: Sensors	Publication Date: Jan 10, 2014
Citations: 122	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Finnish Geospatial Research Institute, University of Turku

Abstract

A professional-quality, personal laser scanning (PLS) system for collecting tree attributes was demonstrated in this paper. The applied system, which is wearable by human operators, consists of a multi-constellation navigation system and an ultra-high-speed phase-shift laser scanner mounted on a rigid baseplate and consisting of a single sensor block. A multipass-corridor-mapping method was developed to process PLS data and a 2,000 m2 forest plot was utilized in the test. The tree stem detection accuracy was 82.6%; the root mean square error (RMSE) of the estimates of tree diameter at breast height (DBH) was 5.06 cm; the RMSE of the estimates of tree location was 0.38 m. The relative RMSE of the DBH estimates was 14.63%. The results showed, for the first time, the potential of the PLS system in mapping large forest plots. Further research on mapping accuracy in various forest conditions, data correction methods and multi-sensoral positioning techniques is needed. The utilization of this system in different applications, such as harvester operations, should also be explored. In addition to collecting tree-level and plot-level data for forest inventory, other possible applications of PLS for forest ecosystem services include mapping of canopy gaps, measuring leaf area index of large areas, documenting and visualizing forest routes feasible for recreation, hiking and berry and mushroom picking.

Highlights

Laser scanning, known as LIDAR, is a surveying technique for collecting a three-dimensional (3-D) point cloud of the reflected objects that uses laser ranging and detection, scanning, positioning and orientation measurement techniques
Small saplings with a diameter at breast height (DBH) just above 10 cm may not have been recorded because the field crew estimated that they did not equal or exceed the minimum diameter criteria
For the personal laser scanning (PLS) stem modeling, small stems with a DBH just under the minimum criteria may be modeled as a bit larger, so that they were estimated as those fulfilling the diameter criteria

Summary

Introduction

Known as LIDAR, is a surveying technique for collecting a three-dimensional (3-D) point cloud of the reflected objects that uses laser ranging and detection, scanning, positioning and orientation measurement techniques. Several types of laser scanning systems currently exist, such as: airborne laser scanning (ALS), terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and mobile laser scanning (MLS). Many laser scanning systems are multi-sensoral platforms, and the technical development of sensors and advances in computing technology allow new development possibilities. Forest resource management is one of the main driving forces in the adoption of laser scanning. ALS was utilized in forest investigations [1,2,3,4]. ALS first became semi-operational for inventorying forest in the early 2000s and was used operationally in the late 2000s in Nordic countries

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