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Harvard Forest Symposium Abstract 2015

  • Title: Using Terrestrial Laser Scanners to Establish Forest Structure at Harvard Forest
  • Primary Author: Edward Saenz (University of Massachusetts - Boston)
  • Additional Authors: Zhan Li (Boston University); Ian Paynter (UMass Boston); Francesco Peri (University of Massachusetts - Boston); Crystal Schaaf (University of Massachusetts - Boston); Alan Strahler (Boston University); Collaborators TLSiig (Not Specified)
  • Abstract:

    Terrestrial laser scanners (TLS) are increasingly being deployed in a variety of ecosystems to calibrate and validate large scale airborne and spaceborne estimates of forest structure and biomass. The full-waveform Dual Wavelength Echidna® Lidar (DWEL) represents an example of a highly capable lidar which can provide a wealth of high resolution information on canopy structure and understory vegetation. However, high performance lidars such as the DWEL tend to scan more slowly and can be more bulky to deploy. Thus, there is also a role for more portable instruments such as the Compact Biomass Lidar (CBL), an inexpensive, lightweight (3.9kg), rapid-scanning (33 seconds), time-of-flight, terrestrial laser scanner to augment the information captured by the highly capable lidars. The point clouds and three dimensional reconstructions from both instruments have been used to generate detailed reconstructions of forest biophysical characteristics at two sites at Harvard Forest. Frequent deployments demonstrate how the strengths of the DWEL can be coupled with the speed and portability of the CBL instrument to extrapolate comprehensive structure information, capture temporal and spatial dynamics, and improve biomass mapping. Further improvements in TLS processing and utilization are being actively pursued in collaboration with the Terrestrial Laser Scanning International Interest Group (TLSiig -- http://tlsiig.bu.edu/).



  • Research Category: Ecological Informatics and Modelling