RNGR.net is sponsored by the USDA Forest Service and Southern Regional Extension Forestry and is a colloborative effort between these two agencies.

U.S. Department of Agriculture USDA Forest Service Southern Regional Extension Forestry Southern Regional Extension Forestry

Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Home → Publications → Tree Improvement and Genetics → Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference → 36th Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference (2021) → Estimating individual tree heights in loblolly pine biomass plantation using drone imagery and LiDAR-derived measurements

Estimating individual tree heights in loblolly pine biomass plantation using drone imagery and LiDAR-derived measurements

Height estimation from Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) is an ever-increasing interest in natural resource fields. With the use of PhoDAR from drone imagery in combination with LiDAR data, we produced high-resolution digital surface models over two test sites. After individual tree identification, we computed individual tree heights on a young biomass plantation of loblolly pine. PhoDAR derived heights were compared with field measurements. Of the 7,200 study trees, the software was able to detect 7,143 trees. Overall correlations between field measured heights and PhoDAR derived heights among sites was low (0.18). Site 1 had a very low correlation (-0.10), but Site 2 had a very strong correlation (0.79). The difference in correlation was attributed the “bowl effect” commonly noted in some digital elevation models from vertical UAS imagery (James and Robson, 2014). With proper ground control and techniques to mitigate such board-scale deformations, the use of PhoDAR derived measurement can become a more efficient method than traditional field methods.


Download this file:

PDF document Download this file — PDF document, 113Kb

Details

Author(s): Jessica A. Maynor, Steve E. McKeand, Fikret Isik, James McCarter

Publication: Tree Improvement and Genetics - Southern Forest Tree Improvement Conference - 2021