Delineation of tree crown and canopy height using airborne LiDAR and aerial photo

Abstract

Airborne LiDAR has good potential in giving accurate height of canopy in forestry area and measuring variable characteristics of detected trees This is essentially accomplished by subtracting the last return altitude (ground) from the first corresponding altitude (canopy surface). This research is intended to extract tree crowns and estimate its height by combining both spatial and spectral information from airborne LiDAR and digital aerial photo. Contouring techniqs were adopted in order to extract the tree crown information from digital aerial photo. LiDAR data was used to estimate tree height from Canopy Height Model (CHM). LiDAR data and digital aerial photo were acquired on the 20th September 2009 at Sungai Ayer Tawar plantation using Optech ALTM3070 and DCS digital camera. The results show that low statistical performance in estimating the tree height due to low density of LiDAR points and less of sampling data taken from field observations.