The importance of determining tree volume spatial distribution in forest environment is quite relevant forestimating carbon stocks and forest dynamics. In normal circumstances it supports forest management, but in caseof extreme events – such as recent windthrow in the past years in Italy – it can also significantly support damageassessment. Remote sensing methods can be a very valid tool to decrease costs of field samples and to upscalevolume estimation to larger areas. Field measurements are notably expensive and time consuming. Fundamentalparameters for tree volume calculations, tree diameter at breast height – 1.3 m - DBH, tree height HT and canopyheight HC, can be measured using photogrammetric techniques, providing certain conditions are met. Experiencesfrom past investigations show that manual methods and unsupervised interpretation of aerial RGB images with aground sampling distance of 0.2 m over felled trees after windthrow can be applied to extract valid aggregated dataat plot level. Comparison of diameter measured in the field with Line Intersect Sampling (LIS) with measurementsfrom operator’s photointerpretation of imagery, provided plot-level mean diameters not significantly different(t-test). Automatic estimation of volume using normalized cross correlation of a linear kernel over imagery offelled trees also provided significant correlation.This method will be applied to standing trees of Araucaria araucana, which are commonly in sparse distribution,thus providing feasible baselines for photogrammetric methods. In the future these close-range remote sensingmethodologies to estimate biomass in forest, under specific conditions, can reduce time and cost, returningaccurate data.

Estimation of wood volume through image interpretation andphotogrammetry

KUTCHARTT RUEDLINGER, ERICO HEINZ
;
Francesco Pirotti
2019

Abstract

The importance of determining tree volume spatial distribution in forest environment is quite relevant forestimating carbon stocks and forest dynamics. In normal circumstances it supports forest management, but in caseof extreme events – such as recent windthrow in the past years in Italy – it can also significantly support damageassessment. Remote sensing methods can be a very valid tool to decrease costs of field samples and to upscalevolume estimation to larger areas. Field measurements are notably expensive and time consuming. Fundamentalparameters for tree volume calculations, tree diameter at breast height – 1.3 m - DBH, tree height HT and canopyheight HC, can be measured using photogrammetric techniques, providing certain conditions are met. Experiencesfrom past investigations show that manual methods and unsupervised interpretation of aerial RGB images with aground sampling distance of 0.2 m over felled trees after windthrow can be applied to extract valid aggregated dataat plot level. Comparison of diameter measured in the field with Line Intersect Sampling (LIS) with measurementsfrom operator’s photointerpretation of imagery, provided plot-level mean diameters not significantly different(t-test). Automatic estimation of volume using normalized cross correlation of a linear kernel over imagery offelled trees also provided significant correlation.This method will be applied to standing trees of Araucaria araucana, which are commonly in sparse distribution,thus providing feasible baselines for photogrammetric methods. In the future these close-range remote sensingmethodologies to estimate biomass in forest, under specific conditions, can reduce time and cost, returningaccurate data.
2019
Geophysical Research Abstracts
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11577/3294575
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