ABI Development: Forest3D - an open source platform for lidar applications in forestry

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The University of California Merced is awarded a grant to develop an integrated software platform for LiDAR data analysis in forest research. Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) is an active remote sensing technology that measures the properties of scattered light to find the range of a distant object. Due to its ability to generate 3-dimensional (3D) data with high spatial resolution and accuracy, LiDAR technology is increasingly being used to obtain individual tree properties, measure forest biophysical parameters, and reconstruct virtual forests. Despite the increasing availability of LiDAR data, however, there are few platforms that allow forestry managers to fully explore this rich 3D data and seamlessly extract forest parameters. The platform provides the following functionality: data management and visualization, point cloud filtering, digital model generation, forest metrics calculation, regression analysis, individual tree segmentation, forest biophysical parameter extraction, and forest visualization. The platform will enable forestry managers to easily manipulate LiDAR data and extract a range of forest parameters of interest.The broader impacts of this research are threefold. First, it will help forest managers to better manage our precious natural resources and make more informed conservation decisions. Second, the platform will enable ecosystem scientists more broadly to extract 3D vegetation structure parameters from the LiDAR data, and thus advance the understanding of ecosystem patterns and processes. Third, this project will support education and research at the University of California, Merced which is a Hispanic Serving Institution. The PIs will actively train and recruit underrepresented students, and promote the use of LiDAR technology and spatial thinking in decision making processes for the local community, state, and federal agencies.