Title
A Novel Approach for the Detection of Standing Tree Stems from Plot-Level Terrestrial Laser Scanning Data.
Abstract
Tree stem detection is a key step toward retrieving detailed stem attributes from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data. Various point-based methods have been proposed for the stem point extraction at both individual tree and plot levels. The main limitation of the point-based methods is their high computing demand when dealing with plot-level TLS data. Although segment-based methods can reduce the computational burden and uncertainties of point cloud classification, its application is largely limited to urban scenes due to the complexity of the algorithm, as well as the conditions of natural forests. Here we propose a novel and simple segment-based method for efficient stem detection at the plot level, which is based on the curvature feature of the points and connected component segmentation. We tested our method using a public TLS dataset with six forest plots that were collected for the international TLS benchmarking project in Evo, Finland. Results showed that the mean accuracies of the stem point extraction were comparable to the state-of-art methods (>95%). The accuracies of the stem mappings were also comparable to the methods tested in the international TLS benchmarking project. Additionally, our method was applicable to a wide range of stem forms. In short, the proposed method is accurate and simple; it is a sensible solution for the stem detection of standing trees using TLS data.
Year
DOI
Venue
2019
10.3390/rs11020211
REMOTE SENSING
Keywords
Field
DocType
tree stem extraction,terrestrial laser scanning,segment-based classification,connected component segmentation
Curvature,Segmentation,Remote sensing,Connected component,Terrestrial laser scanning,Forest plot,Geology,Point cloud,Benchmarking
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
11
2
2072-4292
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
1
0.36
10
Authors
7
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Wuming Zhang16310.00
Peng Wan25310.02
Tiejun Wang34913.19
Shangshu Cai411.37
Yiming Chen5386.70
xiuliang jin6317.50
Yan, G.7910.04