LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) for Wetland Study

Abstract

Wetlands are among the most important ecosystems on Earth. They provide innumerable direct and indirect ecosystem services. Over the past 50 years, wetlands have been polluted and are in rapid decline – three times faster than tropical forests. Light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology has been in use for some time for atmospheric, bathymetry, and geoscience, but there has been limited application to wetland ecosystems. Past application includes data fusion with optical, microwave, and hyperspectral approaches, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicle datasets. Different types of LiDAR have their own advantages and their suitability can be assessed according to application. Wetland research themes include mapping, classification, water level estimation, hydrological modeling, biomass estimation, nutrient efficiency estimation, and vegetation level classification. There is ample future scope for advanced LiDAR methods applied to wetland research.