ForestTech 2011 has held in late 2011 in both Australia and New Zealand. Interpine’s Jonathan Dash and Hamish Marshall presented a discussion on Interpine’s involvement in a range of trial work relating to LiDAR analysis. A quick overview of use and role of LiDAR in forest inventory systems was covered. Then a review of some of the practical decisions / advice we ourselves have worked through while planning and interrogating LiDAR datasets, including sample design, installing ground control plots, allocation of plot size and dealing with edge plots. Finally a brief summary example was given on its use in improving accuracy or reducing cost of traditional rule based sample design inventory carried out in the eastern BOP of New Zealand.

Acknowledgements are given to Future Forest Research, PF Olsen Ltd, Ministry for the Environment, Susana Gonzalex-Aracil (Interpine Post-Grad Research Intern), and Outline Imagery for this assistance during some of the LiDAR projects over the last few years, and also in the ability to share some of the results with the people attending the ForestTech 2011 conference.

If you would like more information on any of this work, please feel free to review the presentation below or contact us.

Conference Presentation:  The effectiveness of LiDAR based inventory systems – v3

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Figure 1 – Deriving Relationships: Intergrating LiDAR and Ground Plots

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Figure 2 – New ways to look at forest variables in a continuous manner rather than the normal discrete strata variables.

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Figure 3 – Sample design considerations, systematic random grid and model based hybrid.

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Figure 4 – Edge plot modelling for LiDAR populations