Predicting forest stand characteristics with airborne scanning lidar

TLDR

Airborne scanning lidar is currently used mainly for geo‑technical tasks such as digital terrain modeling for road and logging system layout, but its ability to directly measure structural features like height and canopy closure makes it suitable for forest stand analysis. The study examined whether lidar data could feasibly predict forest stand characteristics, aiming to enable rapid mapping of height, basal area, and volume after streamlining the process. The authors partnered with industry to assess lidar’s predictive power for stand attributes, developing a streamlined workflow that could produce height, basal area, and volume maps within weeks of data acquisition. Lidar data accurately predict stand height, basal area, and volume, demonstrating strong potential for commercial use across large forests.

Abstract

Currently, commercial forestry applications of airborne scanning lidar are limited to geo-technical applications such as creation of digital terrain models for layout of roads or logging systems. We investigated the feasibility of predicting characteristics of forest stands with lidar data in a universityindustry partnership. Lidar lends itself well to such applications because it allows direct measurement of important structural characteristics of height and canopy closure. We found that lidar data can be used to predict the stand characteristics of height, basal area, and volume quite well. The potential for commercial applications appears bright. Lidar data can be used to estimate stand characteristics over large areas or entire forests. After the process is streamlined, it should be possible to provide maps of height, basal area, and volume in such areas within a few weeks of the lidar collection flight.