UAV LIDAR IMAGING BASED FOREST MAPPING

Laser scanning systems have become one of the most powerful tools for measuring and modeling the earth's surface. With the advent of high-performance Lidar remote sensing technology, it was possible to extract information and parameters related to the vertical structure of features, especially trees, which was not possible with passive remote sensing such as optical satellite images. Point clouds obtained from airborne laser scanning (ALS) provide detailed information about the geometric and physical properties of the features in a vertical distribution. In the field of forestry, the Lidar measurements of the forested areas can provide high-quality data on three-dimensional characterizations of forest and canopy structures. In this study, a Zenmuse-l1 Lidar sensor that is a middle-price and new discrete return sensor manufactured by DJI Technology company were used to generate DEM, DTM, canopy height model, and finally tree's height to show the ability of these data in forestry in the north of Hungary. This paper compares two counting and volume estimation techniques for trees generated by Envi Lidar 5.6 and Global Mapper 23.0 and illustrates the relationship between their height and the diameter at breast height (DBH) that was measured in the field. In this study, we experimentally demonstrated how Lidar-based methods can be applied across a gradient of vegetation and topography to map forests and how to calculate volumetric parameters for precision forest management.