Robustness of Tree Extraction Algorithms from LIDAR

Abstract:

Forest inventory faces a new era as unmanned aerial systems (UAS) increased the precision of measurements, while reduced field effort and price of data acquisition. A large number of algorithms were developed to identify various forest attributes from UAS data. The objective of the present research is to assess the robustness of two types of tree identification algorithms when UAS data are combined with digital elevation models (DEM). The algorithms use as input photogrammetric point cloud, which are subsequent rasterized. The first type of algorithms associate tree crown with an inversed watershed (subsequently referred as watershed based), while the second type is based on simultaneous representation of tree crown as an individual entity, and its relation with neighboring crowns (subsequently referred as simultaneous representation). A DJI equipped with a SONY a5100 was used to acquire images over an area from center Louisiana. The images were processed with Pix4D, and a photogrammetric point cloud with 50 points / m² was attained. DEM was obtained from a flight executed in 2013, which also supplied a LIDAR point cloud with 30 points/m². The algorithms were tested on two plantations with different species and crown class complexities: one homogeneous (i.e., a mature loblolly pine plantation), and one heterogeneous (i.e., an unmanaged uneven-aged stand with mixed species pine –hardwoods). Tree identification on photogrammetric point cloud reveled that simultaneous representation algorithm outperforms watershed algorithm, irrespective stand complexity. Watershed algorithm exhibits robustness to parameters, but the results were worse than majority sets of parameters needed by the simultaneous representation algorithm. The simultaneous representation algorithm is a better alternative to watershed algorithm even when parameters are not accurately estimated. Similar results were obtained when the two algorithms were run on the LIDAR point cloud.