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| Mark Danson delivering Keynote at RSPSoc 2014 |
Laser spotlight on forest structure
Terrestrial laser
scanners (TLS) are set to revolutionise measurement of the three-dimensional
structure of vegetation canopies, completely replacing manual measurements or
indirect estimates of canopy structure, based on light interception. TLS record
millions of range measurements of the canopy and understorey elements, in a
rapid and repeatable way, and this information can be used to estimate, amongst
other things, tree biomass and canopy leaf area index (LAI), and to accurately
reconstruct the complete three-dimensional structure of forest stands. Early
attempts to extract quantitative information on vegetation from commercial TLS data
soon encountered problems related to difficulty in using the radiometric
information contained in the data. In response my team at the University of
Salford worked with Halo Photonics Ltd. to develop and test the experimental
Salford Advanced Laser Canopy Analyser, or SALCA for short, the world’s first
dual-wavelength, full-waveform terrestrial laser scanner specifically designed
for measuring forest canopy structure. SALCA provides a test-bed for better understanding
the interaction of lasers with vegetation canopies, and an open-access mode of
working allows research partners and collaborators to fully explore the
strengths and weaknesses of different data processing and information
extraction algorithms. In the presentation I will outline the origins of the
SALCA instrument, talk about the trials and tribulations of instrument
development, discuss examples of the applications which are now being explored and,
by example, highlight the importance and benefits of collaborative working in
science.
