Drone mounted lidar, an indispensable tool for forest managment

A drone mounted lidar brings a unique advantage of being able to penetrate the forest canopy thus providing XYZ measurements of the ground, which then allows to generate digital models as well as maps illustrating the slope, drainage and orientation of a territory, all factors influencing the type and health of forest elements which are in place.

A low-flying drone can collect lidar data of an entire tree, for example, each facet of a trunk, the treetop and even to the shape of the leaf. The high resolution of the point cloud also makes it possible to accurately calculate the volume of standing wood, the height of the tree, as well as the diameter of the crown.

Combined with a high-resolution camera, photo interpretation adds qualitative value to the measured data such as species identification and general health. Forest inventories requiring a field technician can thus be optimized by reducing the number of plots to be sampled by the use of lidar and drone cameras.

This data can also be used in environmental monitoring to quantify the impacts of logging on land, improve public and private forest land management, and prevent forest fires.

^{Courtesy of : Jakarto}