Light Detection and Ranging (lidar) has been widely applied to characterize the 3-dimensional (3D) structure of forests as it can generate 3D point data with high spatial resolution and accuracy. Individual tree segmentations, usually derived from the canopy height model, are used to derive individual tree structural attributes such as tree height, crown diameter, canopy-based height, and others. In this study, we develop a new algorithm to segment individual trees from the small footprint discrete return airborne lidar point cloud. We experimentally applied the new algorithm to segment trees in a mixed conifer forest in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in California. The results were evaluated in terms of recall, precision, and F-score, and show that the algorithm detected 86 percent of the trees ("recall"), 94 percent of the segmented trees were correct ("precision"), and the overall F-score is 0.9. Our results indicate that the proposed algorithm has good potential in segmenting individual trees in mixed conifer stands of similar structure using small footprint, discrete return lidar data.
The rapid development of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) techniques is advancing ecological and forest research. During the last decade, numerous single tree segmentation techniques have been developed using airborne LiDAR data. However, accurate crown segmentation using terrestrial or mobile LiDAR data, which is an essential prerequisite for extracting branch level forest characteristics, is still challenging mainly because of the difficulties posed by tree crown intersection and irregular crown shape. In the current work, we developed a comparative shortest-path algorithm (CSP) for segmenting tree crowns scanned using terrestrial (T)-LiDAR and mobile LiDAR. The algorithm consists of two steps, namely trunk detection and subsequent crown segmentation, with the latter inspired by the well-proved metabolic ecology theory and the ecological fact that vascular plants tend to minimize the transferring distance to the root. We tested the algorithm on mobile-LiDAR-scanned roadside trees and T-LiDAR-scanned broadleaved and coniferous forests in China. Point-level quantitative assessments of the segmentation results showed that for mobile-LiDAR-scanned roadside trees, all the points were classified to their corresponding trees correctly, and for T-LiDAR-scanned broadleaved and coniferous forests, kappa coefficients ranging from 0.83 to 0.93 were obtained. We believe that our algorithm will make a contribution to solving the problem of crown segmentation in T-LiDAR scanned-forests, and might be of interest to researchers in LiDAR data processing and to forest ecologists. In addition, our research highlights the advantages of using ecological theories as guidelines for processing LiDAR data.
In ecological studies, it is useful to estimate the probability that a species occurs at given locations. The probability of presence can be modeled by traditional statistical methods, if both presence and absence data are available. However, the challenge is that most species records contain only presence data, without reliable absence data. Previous presence‐only methods can estimate a relative index of habitat suitability, but cannot estimate the actual probability of presence. In this study, we develop a presence and background learning algorithm (PBL) that is successful in modeling the conditional probability of presence of a simulated species. The model is trained by two completely separate sets: observed presence and background data. Assuming that the probability of presence is one for ‘prototypical presence’ locations where the habitats are maximally suitable for a species, we can estimate a constant that can calibrate the trained model into the actual probability of presence. Experimental results show that the PBL method performs similarly to a presence‐absence method, and significantly better than the widely used maximum entropy method. The new algorithm enables us to model the probability that a species occurs conditional on environmental covariates without absence data. Hence, it has potential to improve modeling of the geographical distributions of species.
Light detection and ranging (lidar) data is increasingly being used for ecosystem monitoring across geographic scales. This work concentrates on delineating individual trees in topographically-complex, mixed conifer forest across the California's Sierra Nevada. We delineated individual trees using vector data and a 3D lidar point cloud segmentation algorithm, and using raster data with an object-based image analysis (OBIA) of a canopy height model (CHM). The two approaches are compared to each other and to ground reference data. We used high density (9 pulses/m 2 ), discreet lidar data and WorldView-2 imagery to delineate individual trees, and to classify them by species or species types. We also identified a new method to correct artifacts in a high-resolution CHM. Our main focus was to determine the difference between the two types of approaches and to identify the one that produces more realistic results. We compared the delineations via tree detection, tree heights, and the shape of the generated polygons. The tree height agreement was high between the two approaches and the ground data (r 2 : 0.93-0.96). Tree detection rates increased for more dominant trees (8-100 percent). The two approaches delineated tree boundaries that differed in shape: the lidar-approach produced fewer, more complex, and larger polygons that more closely resembled real forest structure.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.