When a definition makes the difference: operative issues about tree height measures from RPAS-derived CHMs

doi:10.3832/ifor3411-013

When a definition makes the difference: operative issues about tree height measures from RPAS-derived CHMs

Samuele De Petris , Roberta Berretti, Filippo Sarvia, Enrico Borgogno Mondino

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 13, Issue 5, Pages 404-408 (2020)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor3411-013
Published: Sep 03, 2020 - Copyright © 2020 SISEF

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Geo-mapping

Tree height (H) survey is a fundamental step in forest mensuration. The error affecting tree height measure, necessarily influences the correspondent tree estimates. The remotely survey of vegetation using PHODAR (PHOtogrammetric Detection And Ranging) or LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging) techniques generates very high-density point clouds, that result into Canopy Height Models (CHMs) having GSD (Ground Sampling Distance) of few centimetres. This GSD value potentially allows to survey single crown apexes, which, from a forestry point of view, do not represent the actual tree height. Apex height value, in fact, does not represent the prevailing dendrometric height (PDH) but the maximum tree value. In this study we propose a new approach aimed at measuring dendrometric height by PHODAR derived CHM, taking care about this issue. The proposed method defines a correcting factor (found equal to 95% percentile of CHM values distribution within a given crown) for the tree height extraction from CHM based on the PDH concept. The method could be implemented to single crown approach in forest parameters extraction algorithms permitting more reliable results, especially in terms of tree volume and related estimations (e.g., carbon stock quantification, allometric models).

Keywords

Tree Height, Prevailing Dendrometric Height, CHM, PHODAR, LiDAR

Authors’ address

(1)

0000-0001-8184-9871
0000-0002-1944-8855
0000-0003-4556-446X
0000-0003-4570-8013
DISAFA - Department of agriculture, forest and food sciences, University of Torino, Largo P. Braccini 2, Grugliasco, TO (Italy)

Corresponding author

Samuele De Petris
samuele.depetris@unito.it

Citation

De Petris S, Berretti R, Sarvia F, Borgogno Mondino E (2020). When a definition makes the difference: operative issues about tree height measures from RPAS-derived CHMs. iForest 13: 404-408. - doi: 10.3832/ifor3411-013

Academic Editor

Carlotta Ferrara

Paper history

Received: Mar 23, 2020
Accepted: Jun 24, 2020

First online: Sep 03, 2020
Publication Date: Oct 31, 2020
Publication Time: 2.37 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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