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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Rachel GaultonORCiD
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) was introduced for basic forest measurements, such as tree height and diameter, in the early 2000s. Recent advances in sensor and algorithm development have allowed us to assess in situ 3D forest structure explicitly and revolutionised the way we monitor and quantify ecosystem structure and function. Here, we provide an interdisciplinary focus to explore current developments in TLS to measure and monitor forest structure. We argue that TLS data will play a critical role in understanding fundamental ecological questions about tree size and shape, allometric scaling, metabolic function and plasticity of form. Furthermore, these new developments enable new applications such as radiative transfer modelling with realistic virtual forests, monitoring of urban forests and larger scale ecosystem monitoring through long-range scanning. Finally, we discuss upscaling of TLS data through data fusion with unmanned aerial vehicles, airborne and spaceborne data, as well as the essential role of TLS in validation of spaceborne missions that monitor ecosystem structure.
Author(s): Calders K, Adams J, Armston J, Bartholomeus H, Bauwens S, Bentley LP, Chave J, Danson FM, Demol M, Disney M, Gaulton R, Moorthy SMK, Levick SR, Saarinen N, Schaaf C, Stovall A, Terryn L, Wilkes P, Verbeeck H
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Remote Sensing of Environment
Year: 2020
Volume: 251
Print publication date: 15/12/2020
Online publication date: 25/09/2020
Acceptance date: 11/09/2020
Date deposited: 07/11/2020
ISSN (print): 0034-4257
ISSN (electronic): 1879-0704
Publisher: Elsevier
URL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.112102
DOI: 10.1016/j.rse.2020.112102
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