A Case Study of the Application of Hand-Held Mobile Laser Scanning in the Planning of an Italian Forest (Alpe Di Catenaia, Tuscany)

Abstract

Abstract. Precision forestry is becoming a key sector for forest planning because it allows complex analyses of forest data to be carried out simply and economically. It contributes to the integration between technicians and operators in the sector by guaranteeing the transparency of the forest management operations (Corona et al., 2017). In the context of the progressive development of technology, we investigated the feasibility of using the hand-held mobile laser scanner (HMLS) system in different types of forest sites and comparison of the characteristics of individual trees (tree height, diameters at breast height) with traditional surveys, applied with the aim to validate the performance of the system for a future alternative methodology for forest planning thanks to the collaboration with the forestry company “Dimensione Ricerca Ecologia Ambiente Italia” (D.R.E.Am. Italia). GEOSLAM ZEB HORIZON ™ laser scanner is a hand-held mobile laser scanner containing SLAM technology that can be solved the problem of no GNSS signal or poor signal under the forest canopy making it more practical for forest investigations (Gollob et al., 2020). 15 forest sample plots are selected to reflect different stand conditions in Mediterranean forests taking into count the development stage and density of the sub-canopy vegetation, as well as the species composition in the forest stands. The aim of this study is to show the possible extrinsic circumstances that make the method fail by varying the ecological status of forest plots.

The efficiency of LiDAR HMLS scanning in monitoring forest structure parameters: implications for sustainable forest management

“…During an HMLS scan, the operator stands in the middle of the test area and waits 15 s for the instrument to find its stability. Then, with the handheld scanner in hand, the operator starts walking inside the sampling area while the rotating head of the scanner captures the 3D data, following a star-shaped walking path (Figure 2), the path demonstrated to best capture data according to a recent bibliography (Sofia et al, 2021;Gollob et al, 2020;Bauwens et al, 2016;Del Perugia et al, 2019). Scanning time is 10-15 min for each circular test plot.…”

FOREST FEATURE LIDAR SLAM (F2-LSLAM) AND INTEGRATED SCAN SIMULTANEOUS TRAJECTORY ENHANCEMENT AND MAPPING (IS2-TEAM) FOR ACCURATE FOREST INVENTORY USING BACKPACK SYSTEMS

“…Recently, commercial under-canopy mobile 3D LiDAR systems integrated with SLAM techniques have become available. Several studies investigated the performance of these commercial systems, including (i) the backpack/handheld LiDAR systems developed by Emesent Hovermap Ltd. (Australia) (Hartley et al, 2022), (ii) the handheld LiDAR systems developed by GeoSLAM Ltd. (UK) (Sofia et al, 2021), and (iii) the backpack LiDAR systems developed by Digital Green Valley Technology Ltd. (China) (Xie et al, 2022). These systems have shown promising results for forest inventory applications.…”

Optimizing the Sampling Area across an Old-Growth Forest via UAV-Borne Laser Scanning, GNSS, and Radial Surveying

“…Most geomatic techniques (conventional traverse surveying and GNSS [1], LiDAR [2], photogrammetry [3], remote sensing [4], geographical information systems [5]) have been used, in recent years, to characterize forests' and trees' planimetric positions. In particular, the development of remote sensing technology in recent decades has been revolutionary for forestry applications (acronyms and symbols are reported in Appendix A).…”