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Cool temperate rainforest and adjacent forests classification using airborne LiDAR data
Author(s) -
Zhang Zhenyu,
Liu Xiaoye,
Peterson Jim,
Wright Wendy
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
area
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.958
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1475-4762
pISSN - 0004-0894
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-4762.2011.01035.x
Subject(s) - lidar , remote sensing , temperate rainforest , rainforest , environmental science , temperate forest , geography , temperate climate , ecology , ecosystem , biology
The traditional methods of forest classification, based on the interpretation of aerial photographs and processing of multi‐spectral and/or hyper‐spectral remote sensing data are limited in their ability to capture the structural complexity of the forests compared with analysis of airborne LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data. This is because of LiDAR's penetration of forest canopies such that detailed and three‐dimensional forest structure descriptions can be derived. This study applied airborne LiDAR data for the classification of cool temperate rainforest and adjacent forests in the Strzelecki Ranges, Victoria, Australia. Using normalised LiDAR point data, the forest vertical structure was stratified into three layers. Variables characterising the height distribution and density of forest components were derived from LiDAR data within each of these layers. The statistical analyses, which included one‐way analysis of variance with post hoc tests, identified effective variables for forest‐type classifications. The results showed that using linear discriminant analysis, an overall classification accuracy of 91.4% (as verified by the cross‐validation) was achieved in the study area.