Determination of optimal point spacing for reliable RPAS-mounted LiDAR inventory of regenerating forest stands in Saskatchewan

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The boreal forest makes up 11.7 million hectares of land in Saskatchewan, of which 5.3 million hectares is considered productive forest accounting for over $1 billion in commodity sales annually. Saskatchewan manages this industry through environmentally-sound industry standards that target long-term sustainability of the boreal forest ecosystem. Technology is an integral component of this management system. In this regard, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) scanners are a notable innovation that permits foresters to document, measure, and identify key attributes of the forest from an aerial platform faster and with better accuracy than ground-based alternatives. LiDAR data is still relatively expensive for large tracts of forested land; specialized data-processing systems are required to evaluate forest performance indicators (i.e. height, volume, species). Forsite Consultants Ltd. (Forsite) is looking to optimize regeneration (regen) surveys for stands in the 'free to grow' stage (8-14 years). Forsite therefore approached Saskatchewan Polytechnic with a research proposal aimed at determining optimal point spacing for regenerating trees using remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS) mounted LiDAR. The objective of this research is to employ a series of trials at varying point densities over previously measured forest stands. The research would permit determination of optimal point spacing for reliable forest inventory information with respect to regenerating stands. This in turn would facilitate recalibration of existing models and more efficient forest management.