The feasibility of modelling the crown profile of larix olgensis using unmanned aerial vehicle laser scanning data

14Citations
Citations of this article
21Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.
Get full text

Abstract

Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) laser scanning, as an emerging form of near-ground light detection and ranging (LiDAR) remote sensing technology, is widely used for crown structure extraction due to its flexibility, convenience, and high point density. Herein, we evaluated the feasibility of using a low-cost UAV-LiDAR system to extract the fine-scale crown profile of Larix olgensis. Specifically, individual trees were isolated from LiDAR point clouds and then stratified from the point clouds of segmented individual tree crowns at 0.5 m intervals to obtain the width percentiles of each layer as profile points. Four equations (the parabola, Mitscherlich, power, and modified beta equations) were then applied to model the profiles of the entire and upper crown. The results showed that a region-based hierarchical cross-section analysis algorithm can successfully delineate 77.4% of the field-measured trees in high-density (>2400 trees/ha) forest stands. The crown profile generated with the 95th width percentile was adequate when compared with the predicted value of the existing field-based crown profile model (the Pearson correlation coefficient (ρ) was 0.864, root mean square error (RMSE) = 0.3354 m). The modified beta equation yielded slightly better results than the other equations for crown profile fitting and explained 85.9% of the variability in the crown radius for the entire crown and 87.8% of this variability for the upper crown. Compared with the cone and 3D convex hull volumes, the crown volumes predicted by our profile models had significantly smaller errors. The results revealed that the crown profile can be well described by using UAV-LiDAR, providing a novel way to obtain crown profile information without destructive sampling and showing the potential of the use of UAV-LiDAR in future forestry investigations and monitoring.

References Powered by Scopus

Development of a UAV-LiDAR system with application to forest inventory

591Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

A new method for segmenting individual trees from the lidar point cloud

582Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Isolating individual trees in a savanna woodland using small footprint lidar data

511Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Cited by Powered by Scopus

The shape of trees: Reimagining forest ecology in three dimensions with remote sensing

45Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Tree species classification in a typical natural secondary forest using UAV-borne LiDAR and hyperspectral data

35Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Individual tree diameter estimation in small-scale forest inventory using uav laser scanning

30Citations
N/AReaders
Get full text

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Quan, Y., Li, M., Zhen, Z., Hao, Y., & Wang, B. (2020). The feasibility of modelling the crown profile of larix olgensis using unmanned aerial vehicle laser scanning data. Sensors (Switzerland), 20(19), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.3390/s20195555

Readers over time

‘20‘21‘22‘23‘24‘2502468

Readers' Seniority

Tooltip

PhD / Post grad / Masters / Doc 9

82%

Professor / Associate Prof. 1

9%

Researcher 1

9%

Readers' Discipline

Tooltip

Engineering 3

38%

Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3

38%

Chemical Engineering 1

13%

Computer Science 1

13%

Article Metrics

Tooltip
Mentions
Blog Mentions: 1

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free
0