Using LiDAR technology in forestry activities

Managing natural resources in wide-scale areas can be highly time and resource consuming task which requires significant amount of data collection in the field and reduction of the data in the office to provide the necessary information. High performance LiDAR remote sensing technology has recently become an effective tool for use in applications of natural resources. In the field of forestry, the LiDAR measurements of the forested areas can provide high-quality data on three-dimensional characterizations of forest structures. Besides, LiDAR data can be used to provide very high quality and accurate Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for the forested areas. This study presents the progress and opportunities of using LiDAR remote sensing technology in various forestry applications. The results indicate that LiDAR based forest structure data and high-resolution DEMs can be used in wide-scale forestry activities such as stand characterizations, forest inventory and management, fire behaviour modeling, and forest operations.