Open AccessEVALUATION OF FOREST CANOPY AND UNDERSTORY GAP FRACTION DERIVED FROM TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNING
Author(s) -
K. C. Chen,
Chi-Kuei Wang
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
the international archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences/international archives of the photogrammetry, remote sensing and spatial information sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.264
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1682-1777
pISSN - 1682-1750
DOI - 10.5194/isprsarchives-xli-b8-589-2016
Subject(s) - understory , canopy , environmental science , carbon sequestration , laser scanning , tree canopy , remote sensing , leaf area index , laser , ecology , geography , optics , physics , carbon dioxide , biology
The quantification of forest carbon sequestration is helpful to understand the carbon storage on the Earth. The estimation of forest carbon sequestration can be achieved by the use of leaf area index (LAI), which is derived from forest gap fraction. The hemispherical image-based technique is the most popular non-destructive means for obtaining such information. However, only the gap fraction of the top canopy is derived due to the limitation of imaging technique. The gap fraction information of understory is thus neglected. In this study, we evaluate the use of a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) to obtain the forest canopy and understory gap fraction. The forest TLS data were manually classified as the top canopy and understory layers to facilitate the estimation of top canopy and understory gap fraction, respectively.