scholarly journals Analysis of Dynamic Forest Structures Based on Hierarchical Features Extracted From Multi-station LiDAR Scanning

Author(s):  
yuan sun ◽  
XiuYun Lin ◽  
Yulin Gong ◽  
Jiawen Jiang ◽  
Yanli Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract BackgroundThe rapid development of active remote sensing laser scanning technology has led to the accumulation of substantial data on long-term forest changes. Accurate selection of the key parameters from larger amounts of cloud data is a prerequisite for volume estimates of standing trees. This study collected three phases of data over 5 years from Liriodendron chinense plantation forest. A series of the height-related characteristic parameters was extracted from the scanned points of each tree stem, which includes a novel feature of the height cumulative percentage (Hz%) proposed by us. Meanwhile, taking the manually measurements directly from the terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data as the ground truth, the performance of various models combined with the characteristic parameters on the prediction of the wood volume of each tree was evaluated for the purpose of determination of the optimal parameters and prediction models suitable for the tree species of Liriodendron chinense. ResultsThe shape of the upper tree trunk extracted by the point cloud is equivalent to that of the analytical tree with inflection points at 25% and 50% of the height. Among the correlations between the hierarchical features and volumes, the parameters with the highest correlations are H25 and H50. The hierarchical parameters were selected for volume modeling. H25 and diameter at breast height (DBH) were used for all three phases, for which the fitted R2 reached 0.951, 0.957 and 0.901. The modeled dynamic volume change was highly correlated with the actual point cloud-extracted volume change. In the linear relation, the intercept is -0.081, and the slope is 1.14. ConclusionsThe Hz% value provided by multi-station scanning was closely related to the characteristic stumpage parameters and could be used to invert the dynamic forest structure. The volume model based on point cloud hierarchical parameters could be used to monitor the dynamic changes in forest volume and provide an updated reference for applying TLS point clouds for the dynamic monitoring of forest growth information.

2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Xiuyun Lin ◽  
Yulin Gong ◽  
Yuan Sun ◽  
Jiawen Jiang ◽  
Yanli Zhang ◽  
...  

This study aims at searching for characteristic parameters of tree trunks to establish a volume model and dynamic analysis of volume based on terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). We collected three phases of data over 5 years from an artificial Liriodendron chinense forest. The upper diameters of the tree stump and tree height data were obtained by using the multi-station scanning method. A novel hierarchical TLS point cloud feature named the height cumulative percentage (Hz%) was designed. The shape of the upper tree trunk extracted by the point cloud was equivalent to that of the analytical tree with inflection points at 25% and 50% of the height, and the dynamic volume change of the model, which was established by hierarchical features, was highly related to the volume change of the actual point cloud extraction. The obtained results reflected the fact that the Hz% value provided by multi-station scanning was closely related to the characteristic stumpage parameters and could be used to invert the dynamic forest structure. The volume model established based on point cloud hierarchical parameters in this study could be used to monitor the dynamic changes of forest volume and to provide a new reference for applying TLS point clouds for the dynamic monitoring of forest resources.


Algorithms ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (12) ◽  
pp. 260
Author(s):  
Kexin Li ◽  
Jun Wang ◽  
Dawei Qi

Damage mechanisms of Reactive Powder Concrete (RPC) under fatigue loading are investigated using the 3D laser scanning technology. An independently configured 3D laser scanning system is used to monitor the damaging procedure. Texture analysis technique is also applied to enhance the understanding of the damage mechanisms of RPC under fatigue loading. In order to obtain the characteristic parameters of point cloud data, a point clouds projection algorithm is proposed. Damage evolution is described by the change of point cloud data of the damage in the 2D plane and 3D space during fatigue loading. The Gray Level Co-occurrence Matrix (GLCM) method is used to extract the characteristic parameters to evaluate the statue of the structural. Angular Second Moment and Cluster Shadow of typical sensitive characteristic indexes is screened by using the Digital Feature Screening. The reliability of the damage index was verified by image texture analysis and data expansion. Indexes extracted in this paper can be used as a new structural health monitoring indicator to assess health condition.


2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-24
Author(s):  
Piotr Tompalski ◽  
Nicholas C. Coops ◽  
Joanne C. White ◽  
Tristan R.H. Goodbody ◽  
Chris R. Hennigar ◽  
...  

Abstract Purpose of Review The increasing availability of three-dimensional point clouds, including both airborne laser scanning and digital aerial photogrammetry, allow for the derivation of forest inventory information with a high level of attribute accuracy and spatial detail. When available at two points in time, point cloud datasets offer a rich source of information for detailed analysis of change in forest structure. Recent Findings Existing research across a broad range of forest types has demonstrated that those analyses can be performed using different approaches, levels of detail, or source data. By reviewing the relevant findings, we highlight the potential that bi- and multi-temporal point clouds have for enhanced analysis of forest growth. We divide the existing approaches into two broad categories— – approaches that focus on estimating change based on predictions of two or more forest inventory attributes over time, and approaches for forecasting forest inventory attributes. We describe how point clouds acquired at two or more points in time can be used for both categories of analysis by comparing input airborne datasets, before discussing the methods that were used, and resulting accuracies. Summary To conclude, we outline outstanding research gaps that require further investigation, including the need for an improved understanding of which three-dimensional datasets can be applied using certain methods. We also discuss the likely implications of these datasets on the expected outcomes, improvements in tree-to-tree matching and analysis, integration with growth simulators, and ultimately, the development of growth models driven entirely with point cloud data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 961 (7) ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
A.G. Yunusov ◽  
A.J. Jdeed ◽  
N.S. Begliarov ◽  
M.A. Elshewy

Laser scanning is considered as one of the most useful and fast technologies for modelling. On the other hand, the size of scan results can vary from hundreds to several million points. As a result, the large volume of the obtained clouds leads to complication at processing the results and increases the time costs. One way to reduce the volume of a point cloud is segmentation, which reduces the amount of data from several million points to a limited number of segments. In this article, we evaluated effect on the performance, the accuracy of various segmentation methods and the geometric accuracy of the obtained models at density changes taking into account the processing time. The results of our experiment were compared with reference data in a form of comparative analysis. As a conclusion, some recommendations for choosing the best segmentation method were proposed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 2195
Author(s):  
Shiming Li ◽  
Xuming Ge ◽  
Shengfu Li ◽  
Bo Xu ◽  
Zhendong Wang

Today, mobile laser scanning and oblique photogrammetry are two standard urban remote sensing acquisition methods, and the cross-source point-cloud data obtained using these methods have significant differences and complementarity. Accurate co-registration can make up for the limitations of a single data source, but many existing registration methods face critical challenges. Therefore, in this paper, we propose a systematic incremental registration method that can successfully register MLS and photogrammetric point clouds in the presence of a large number of missing data, large variations in point density, and scale differences. The robustness of this method is due to its elimination of noise in the extracted linear features and its 2D incremental registration strategy. There are three main contributions of our work: (1) the development of an end-to-end automatic cross-source point-cloud registration method; (2) a way to effectively extract the linear feature and restore the scale; and (3) an incremental registration strategy that simplifies the complex registration process. The experimental results show that this method can successfully achieve cross-source data registration, while other methods have difficulty obtaining satisfactory registration results efficiently. Moreover, this method can be extended to more point-cloud sources.


Forests ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (7) ◽  
pp. 835
Author(s):  
Ville Luoma ◽  
Tuomas Yrttimaa ◽  
Ville Kankare ◽  
Ninni Saarinen ◽  
Jiri Pyörälä ◽  
...  

Tree growth is a multidimensional process that is affected by several factors. There is a continuous demand for improved information on tree growth and the ecological traits controlling it. This study aims at providing new approaches to improve ecological understanding of tree growth by the means of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS). Changes in tree stem form and stem volume allocation were investigated during a five-year monitoring period. In total, a selection of attributes from 736 trees from 37 sample plots representing different forest structures were extracted from taper curves derived from two-date TLS point clouds. The results of this study showed the capability of point cloud-based methods in detecting changes in the stem form and volume allocation. In addition, the results showed a significant difference between different forest structures in how relative stem volume and logwood volume increased during the monitoring period. Along with contributing to providing more accurate information for monitoring purposes in general, the findings of this study showed the ability and many possibilities of point cloud-based method to characterize changes in living organisms in particular, which further promote the feasibility of using point clouds as an observation method also in ecological studies.


2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 367
Author(s):  
Simoni Alexiou ◽  
Georgios Deligiannakis ◽  
Aggelos Pallikarakis ◽  
Ioannis Papanikolaou ◽  
Emmanouil Psomiadis ◽  
...  

Analysis of two small semi-mountainous catchments in central Evia island, Greece, highlights the advantages of Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) and Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) based change detection methods. We use point clouds derived by both methods in two sites (S1 & S2), to analyse the effects of a recent wildfire on soil erosion. Results indicate that topsoil’s movements in the order of a few centimetres, occurring within a few months, can be estimated. Erosion at S2 is precisely delineated by both methods, yielding a mean value of 1.5 cm within four months. At S1, UAV-derived point clouds’ comparison quantifies annual soil erosion more accurately, showing a maximum annual erosion rate of 48 cm. UAV-derived point clouds appear to be more accurate for channel erosion display and measurement, while the slope wash is more precisely estimated using TLS. Analysis of Point Cloud time series is a reliable and fast process for soil erosion assessment, especially in rapidly changing environments with difficult access for direct measurement methods. This study will contribute to proper georesource management by defining the best-suited methodology for soil erosion assessment after a wildfire in Mediterranean environments.


Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (10) ◽  
pp. 3416
Author(s):  
Pawel Burdziakowski ◽  
Angelika Zakrzewska

The continuous and intensive development of measurement technologies for reality modelling with appropriate data processing algorithms is currently being observed. The most popular methods include remote sensing techniques based on reflected-light digital cameras, and on active methods in which the device emits a beam. This research paper presents the process of data integration from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) and image data from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that was aimed at the spatial mapping of a complicated steel structure, and a new automatic structure extraction method. We proposed an innovative method to minimize the data size and automatically extract a set of points (in the form of structural elements) that is vital from the perspective of engineering and comparative analyses. The outcome of the research was a complete technology for the acquisition of precise information with regard to complex and high steel structures. The developed technology includes such elements as a data integration method, a redundant data elimination method, integrated photogrammetric data filtration and a new adaptive method of structure edge extraction. In order to extract significant geometric structures, a new automatic and adaptive algorithm for edge extraction from a random point cloud was developed and presented herein. The proposed algorithm was tested using real measurement data. The developed algorithm is able to realistically reduce the amount of redundant data and correctly extract stable edges representing the geometric structures of a studied object without losing important data and information. The new algorithm automatically self-adapts to the received data. It does not require any pre-setting or initial parameters. The detection threshold is also adaptively selected based on the acquired data.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Francisco Mauro ◽  
Andrew T. Hudak ◽  
Patrick A. Fekety ◽  
Bryce Frank ◽  
Hailemariam Temesgen ◽  
...  

Airborne laser scanning (ALS) acquisitions provide piecemeal coverage across the western US, as collections are organized by local managers of individual project areas. In this study, we analyze different factors that can contribute to developing a regional strategy to use information from completed ALS data acquisitions and develop maps of multiple forest attributes in new ALS project areas in a rapid manner. This study is located in Oregon, USA, and analyzes six forest structural attributes for differences between: (1) synthetic (i.e., not-calibrated), and calibrated predictions, (2) parametric linear and semiparametric models, and (3) models developed with predictors computed for point clouds enclosed in the areas where field measurements were taken, i.e., “point-cloud predictors”, and models developed using predictors extracted from pre-rasterized layers, i.e., “rasterized predictors”. Forest structural attributes under consideration are aboveground biomass, downed woody biomass, canopy bulk density, canopy height, canopy base height, and canopy fuel load. Results from our study indicate that semiparametric models perform better than parametric models if no calibration is performed. However, the effect of the calibration is substantial in reducing the bias of parametric models but minimal for the semiparametric models and, once calibrations are performed, differences between parametric and semiparametric models become negligible for all responses. In addition, minimal differences between models using point-cloud predictors and models using rasterized predictors were found. We conclude that the approach that applies semiparametric models and rasterized predictors, which represents the easiest workflow and leads to the most rapid results, is justified with little loss in accuracy or precision even if no calibration is performed.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan Guerra-Hernández ◽  
Adrián Pascual

Abstract Background The NASA’s Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) satellite mission aims at scanning forest ecosystems on a multi-temporal short-rotation basis. The GEDI data can validate and update statistics from nationwide airborne laser scanning (ALS). We present a case in the Northwest of Spain using GEDI statistics and nationwide ALS surveys to estimate forest dynamics in three fast-growing forest ecosystems comprising 211,346 ha. The objectives were: i) to analyze the potential of GEDI to detect disturbances, ii) to investigate uncertainty source regarding non-positive height increments from the 2015–2017 ALS data to the 2019 GEDI laser shots and iii) to estimate height growth using polygons from the Forest Map of Spain (FMS). A set of 258 National Forest Inventory plots were used to validate the observed height dynamics. Results The spatio-temporal assessment from ALS surveying to GEDI scanning allowed the large-scale detection of harvests. The mean annual height growths were 0.79 (SD = 0.63), 0.60 (SD = 0.42) and 0.94 (SD = 0.75) m for Pinus pinaster, Pinus radiata and Eucalyptus spp., respectively. The median annual values from the ALS-GEDI positive increments were close to NFI-based growth values computed for Pinus pinaster and Pinus radiata, respectively. The effect of edge border, spatial co-registration of GEDI shots and the influence of forest cover in the observed dynamics were important factors to considering when processing ALS data and GEDI shots. Discussion The use of GEDI laser data provides valuable insights for forest industry operations especially when accounting for fast changes. However, errors derived from positioning, ground finder and canopy structure can introduce uncertainty to understand the detected growth patterns as documented in this study. The analysis of forest growth using ALS and GEDI would benefit from the generalization of common rules and data processing schemes as the GEDI mission is increasingly being utilized in the forest remote sensing community.


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