| Forest managers need precise, accurate, and timely information to make decisions that successfully balance timber production and ecological goals. LiDAR has potential to help provide this information with an accuracy approaching that of traditional ground-based inventories, but in less time. LiDAR can provide vegetation height measurements. The distribution of LiDAR z-values can provide information on the height of the crown centroid, i.e. the center of leaf area. Biomechanical relationships for some tree species, including loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.), allow us to determine stem diameter with tree height and centroid values. Height and diameter estimates provide the basis for volume estimates. A double-sampling procedure uses regression correlations from ground plots to adjust for bias in the LiDAR volume estimates and to expanded plot estimates to the forest level. This inventory system provided forest volume estimates with a sampling error of 8.88% and a correlation coefficient of 0.7772. |
