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Automated tree detection and crown delineation using airborne laser scanner data in heterogeneous East-Central Europe forest with different species mix

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Abstract

Identifying tree locations is a basic step in the derivation of other tree parameters using remote sensing techniques, particularly when using airborne laser scanning. There are several techniques for identifying tree positions. In this paper, we present a raster-based method for determining tree position and delineating crown coverage. We collected data from nine research plots that supported different mixes of species. We applied a raster-based method to raster layers with six different spatial resolutions and used terrestrial measurement data as reference data. Tree identification at a spatial resolution of 1.5 m was demonstrated to be the most accurate, with an average identification ratio (IR) of 95% and average detection ratio of 68% being observed. At a higher spatial resolution of 0.5 m, IR was overestimated by more than 600%. At a lower spatial resolution of 3 m, IR was underestimated at less than 44% of terrestrial measurements. The inventory process was timed to enable evaluation of the time efficiency of automatic methods.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Management and Geodesy, Technical University in Zvolen, T.G. Masaryka 24, 960 53, Zvolen, Slovak Republic

    Róbert Smreček, Zuzana Michňová & Ján Tuček

  2. Department of Forest Policy, Economics and Forest Management, National Forest Centre - Forest Research Institute Zvolen, T.G. Masaryka 22, 960 92, Zvolen, Slovak Republic

    Ivan Sačkov

Authors
  1. Róbert Smreček
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  2. Ivan Sačkov
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  3. Zuzana Michňová
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  4. Ján Tuček
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Róbert Smreček.

Additional information

Project funding: This work was supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic and by the Slovak Academy of Sciences under Project No. 1/0953/13: “Geographic information on forest and forest landscape: creation and utilization of particularity”.

The online version is available at http://www.springerlink.com.

Corresponding editor: Hu Yanbo.

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Smreček, R., Sačkov, I., Michňová, Z. et al. Automated tree detection and crown delineation using airborne laser scanner data in heterogeneous East-Central Europe forest with different species mix. J. For. Res. 28, 1049–1059 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-017-0378-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-017-0378-7

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