Individual tree crown delineation using localized contour tree method and airborne LiDAR data in coniferous forests

被引:71
作者
Wu, Bin [1 ,2 ]
Yu, Bailang [1 ,2 ]
Wu, Qiusheng [3 ]
Huang, Yan [1 ,2 ]
Chen, Zuoqi [1 ,2 ]
Wu, Jianping [1 ,2 ]
机构
[1] East China Normal Univ, Key Lab Geog Informat Sci, Minist Educ, Shanghai 200241, Peoples R China
[2] East China Normal Univ, Sch Geog Sci, Shanghai 200241, Peoples R China
[3] SUNY Binghamton, Dept Geog, Binghamton, NY 13902 USA
基金
上海市自然科学基金; 美国国家科学基金会; 中国国家自然科学基金;
关键词
Individual tree crown; Segmentation; Contour tree; Graph theory; Hierarchical structure; LiDAR; SMALL-FOOTPRINT; STEM VOLUME; STAND CHARACTERISTICS; ACTIVE CONTOUR; INVENTORY DATA; HEIGHT MODELS; EXTRACTION; SEGMENTATION; ALGORITHM; NUMBER;
D O I
10.1016/j.jag.2016.06.003
中图分类号
TP7 [遥感技术];
学科分类号
081102 ; 0816 ; 081602 ; 083002 ; 1404 ;
摘要
Individual tree crown delineation is of great importance for forest inventory and management. The increasing availability of high-resolution airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data makes it possible to delineate the crown structure of individual trees and deduce their geometric properties with high accuracy. In this study, we developed an automated segmentation method that is able to fully utilize high-resolution LiDAR data for detecting, extracting, and characterizing individual tree crowns with a multitude of geometric and topological properties. The proposed approach captures topological structure of forest and quantifies topological relationships of tree crowns by using a graph theory-based localized contour tree method, and finally segments individual tree crowns by analogy of recognizing hills from a topographic map. This approach consists of five key technical components: (1) derivation of canopy height model from airborne LiDAR data; (2) generation of contours based on the canopy height model; (3) extraction of hierarchical structures of tree crowns using the localized contour tree method; (4) delineation of individual tree crowns by segmenting hierarchical crown structure; and (5) calculation of geometric and topological properties of individual trees. We applied our new method to the Medicine Bow National Forest in the southwest of Laramie, Wyoming and the HJ Andrews Experimental Forest in the central portion of the Cascade Range of Oregon, U.S. The results reveal that the overall accuracy of individual tree crown delineation for the two study areas achieved 94.21% and 75.07%, respectively. Our method holds great potential for segmenting individual tree crowns under various forest conditions. Furthermore, the geometric and topological attributes derived from our method provide comprehensive and essential information for forest management. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
引用
收藏
页码:82 / 94
页数:13
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