Remote sensing of species mixtures in conifer plantations using LiDAR height and intensity data

In even-aged, single species conifer plantations LiDAR height data can be modelled to provide accurate estimates of tree height and volume. However, it is apparent that growth models developed for single species stands are not directly transferable to a more general situation of mixed species plantations. This paper evaluates the ability of small footprint, dual-return, pulsed airborne LiDAR data to estimate the proportion of the productive species when mixed with a nurse crop in closed canopy plantations. A study area located in Galloway Forest District in Scotland is used as an example of Lodgepole pine and Sitka spruce mixed plantation; this area contains good examples of a wide range of pure and mixed species plantation types. Three species groups are studied: areas of pure Sitka spruce, areas of pure Lodgepole pine and areas where the two species have been planted together. Two approaches are assessed for detection of plantation mixtures: the first uses LiDAR intensity data to separate spruce and pine species and the second uses LiDAR-derived canopy density measures, coefficient of variation, skewness, percent of ground returns (which provides a measure of canopy openness) and the mean canopy height, which enables areas with height variations to be identified. From analysis of LiDAR data extracted from 54 study plots using logistic regression, the coefficient of variation and LiDAR intensity data provide the most useful predictors of the proportion of spruce in a pine/spruce mixture with coefficients of determination (R²) of 0.914 and 0.930 respectively. The method could be developed as a mapping tool, which in combination with existing inventory data should help to improve timber volume forecasting for mixed species even-aged plantations.     

基于区域结构特征的城区LiDAR数据快速分类

机载激光雷达能够及时准确地获取大量具有精确三维位置信息的三维点云数据,在数字城市、森林防火、智能交通等领域有着广泛的应用。城市中心区域的三维点云数据往往会因为高大树木或植被的遮挡,造成建筑物等人造目标识别特别困难。本文通过直接的二次多项式拟合方式提取高大树木等植被与建筑物目标典型局部区域的区域信息,构建区域目标敏感的结构特征,进而,通过模糊逻辑即可完成三维点云数据的建筑物目标敏感的分类任务。实验结果表明,该方法能够快速有效地实现较大尺度范围内LiDAR点云数据的分类,具有较好的应用前景和推广能力。     

基于激光雷达的大兴安岭典型森林生物量制图技术研究

森林生物量作为森林生态系统基本的数量表征,表明了森林的经营水平和开发利用价值,并能反映其与环境在物质循环和能量流动方面的复杂关系。同时,森林生物量也是林业问题和生态问题研究的基础。以内蒙古大兴安岭国家野外生态站为研究区域,通过对机载激光雷达(LiDAR)点云数据的预处理,利用计算机编程提取LiDAR点云数据的结构参数,以植被分位数高度变量与密度变量为自变量,结合地面调查数据,建立生物量与LiDAR结构参数的回归模型(决定系数为0.69,均方根误差为0.34)。运用IDL编程对LiDAR点云块数据进行运算并生成分辨率为20m×20m的栅格图像,拼接后得到整个区域的地上生物量分布图,对生成的地上生物量分布图进行验证的R2为0.78,RMSE为23.09t/hm2,平均估测精度达83%。     

A mathematical morphology-based multi-level filter of LiDAR data for generating DTMs

Light detecting and ranging(LiDAR)technology has become an efective way to generate highresolution digital terrain models(DTMs).To generate DTMs,point measurements from non-ground features,such as buildings,vegetation and vehicles,have to be identifed and removed while preserving the terrain points.This paper proposes an efcient mathematical morphology-based multi-level flter to generate DTMs from airborne LiDAR data.Preliminary non-ground points are frst identifed with the characteristics of the multiecho airborne LiDAR data.The localized mathematical morphology opening operations are then immediately applied to the remaining points.By gradually increasing the window size of the flter and using a dynamic critical gradient threshold,the non-ground points are removed,while the ground points are preserved.Eight samples were chosen from eight sites provided with the ISPRS Commission III,Working Group 3,to evaluate the accuracy of our algorithm.Both the qualitative and quantitative experiment analyses show that our morphologybased multi-level flter method achieves promising results,not only in flat urban areas but also in rural areas,especially in preserving complex terrain details,while non-ground spatial objects are removed.     

一种新的等高线质量评价方法

分析了传统等高线质量评价相关模型,提出了基于信息量的等高线精度评价方法和基于形状指数的等高线光滑度评价方法,并给出了具体的量化计算过程;最后通过实验验证了该评价方法的可行性。     

基于点云配准的多固态激光雷达标定算法

针对多个固态激光雷达协同工作时,需要准确地进行外参标定的实际需求,提出一种基于点云配准的多固态激光雷达自动标定算法。该标定算法由标定物分割、初始配准和精确配准三个阶段构成。在标定物分割阶段,首先通过叠加多帧非重复扫描数据制作标定点云,再使用半径滤波和体素下采样滤波分割出纹理特征明显的目标点云。在初始配准阶段,使用3D-HARRIS算法提取关键点,并使用方向直方图(SHOT)特征描述子进行特征描述,然后匹配对应点并使用采样一致算法完成初始配准;在精配准阶段使用迭代最近邻(ICP)算法进行精确配准,从而获得精确的外参标定效果。在Bunny兔数据集和现场获得的数据上进行实验,结果表明,当保证配准平均误差小于1 mm的前提下,所提出算法的性能优于多种现有算法。     

基于转台的线阵激光雷达地面检校方法研究

介绍了一种基于转台的线阵激光雷达地面检校方法,该方法通过布设物方检校控制场,使用指示激光器建立激光测距值与物方控制点之间的对应关系并引入激光测距的加/乘常数与外方位元素一并作为检校参数,通过坐标转换列出误差方程式;最后使用最小二乘平差解算所有的检校参数。文中给出了实测数据的实验结果分析及精度评定,验证了本文方法的可行性。     

An assessment of photosynthetic light use efficiency from space: Modeling the atmospheric and directional impacts on PRI reflectance

Estimation of photosynthetic light use efficiency (ε) from satellite observations is an important component of climate change research. The photochemical reflectance index, a narrow waveband index based on the reflectance at 531 and 570 nm, allows sampling of the photosynthetic activity of leaves; upscaling of these measurements to landscape and global scales, however, remains challenging. Only a few studies have used spaceborne observations of PRI so far, and research has largely focused on the MODIS sensor. Its daily global coverage and the capacity to detect a narrow reflectance band at 531 nm make it the best available choice for sensing ε from space. Previous results however, have identified a number of key issues with MODIS-based observations of PRI. First, the differences between the footprint of eddy covariance (EC) measurements and the MODIS footprint, which is determined by the sensor's observation geometry make a direct comparison between both data sources challenging and second, the PRI reflectance bands are affected by atmospheric scattering effects confounding the existing physiological signal. In this study we introduce a new approach for upscaling EC based ε measurements to MODIS. First, EC-measured ε values were “translated” into a tower-level optical PRI signal using AMSPEC, an automated multi-angular, tower-based spectroradiometer instrument. AMSPEC enabled us to adjust tower-measured PRI values to the individual viewing geometry of each MODIS overpass. Second, MODIS data were atmospherically corrected using a Multi-Angle Implementation of Atmospheric Correction (MAIAC) algorithm, which uses a time series approach and an image-based rather than pixel-based processing for simultaneous retrievals of atmospheric aerosol and surface bidirectional reflectance (BRDF). Using this approach, we found a strong relationship between tower-based and spaceborne reflectance measurements (r² = 0.74, p < 0.01) throughout the vegetation period of 2006. Swath (non-gridded) observations yielded stronger correlations than gridded data (r² = 0.58, p < 0.01) both of which included forward and backscatter observations. Spaceborne PRI values were strongly related to canopy shadow fractions and varied with different levels of ε. We conclude that MAIAC-corrected MODIS observations were able to track the site-level physiological changes from space throughout the observation period.     

Development of a pit filling algorithm for LiDAR canopy height models

LiDAR canopy height models (CHMs) can exhibit unnatural looking holes or pits, i.e., pixels with a much lower digital number than their immediate neighbors. These artifacts may be caused by a combination of factors, from data acquisition to post-processing, that not only result in a noisy appearance to the CHM but may also limit semi-automated tree-crown delineation and lead to errors in biomass estimates. We present a highly effective semi-automated pit filling algorithm that interactively detects data pits based on a simple user-defined threshold, and then fills them with a value derived from their neighborhood. We briefly describe this algorithm and its graphical user interface, and show its result in a LiDAR CHM populated with data pits. This method can be rapidly applied to any CHM with minimal user interaction. Visualization confirms that our method effectively and quickly removes data pits.     

Integrating airborne multispectral imagery and airborne LiDAR data for enhanced lithological mapping in vegetated terrain

Practical and financial constraints associated with traditional field-based lithological mapping are often responsible for the generation of maps with insufficient detail and inaccurately located contacts. In arid areas with well exposed rocks and soils, high-resolution multi- and hyperspectral imagery is a valuable mapping aid as lithological units can be readily discriminated and mapped by automatically matching image pixel spectra to a set of reference spectra. However, the use of spectral imagery in all but the most barren terrain is problematic because just small amounts of vegetation cover can obscure or mask the spectra of underlying geological substrates. The use of ancillary information may help to improve lithological discrimination, especially where geobotanical relationships are absent or where distinct lithologies exhibit inherent spectral similarity. This study assesses the efficacy of airborne multispectral imagery for detailed lithological mapping in a vegetated section of the Troodos ophiolite (Cyprus), and investigates whether the mapping performance can be enhanced through the integration of LiDAR-derived topographic data. In each case, a number of algorithms involving different combinations of input variables and classification routine were employed to maximise the mapping performance. Despite the potential problems posed by vegetation cover, geobotanical associations aided the generation of a lithological map - with a satisfactory overall accuracy of 65.5% and Kappa of 0.54 - using only spectral information. Moreover, owing to the correlation between topography and lithology in the study area, the integration of LiDAR-derived topographic variables led to significant improvements of up to 22.5% in the overall mapping accuracy compared to spectral-only approaches. The improvements were found to be considerably greater for algorithms involving classification with an artificial neural network (the Kohonen Self-Organizing Map) than the parametric Maximum Likelihood Classifier. The results of this study demonstrate the enhanced capability of data integration for detailed lithological mapping in areas where spectral discrimination is complicated by the presence of vegetation or inherent spectral similarities.