airborne lidar technology
TRANSCRIPT
Airborne LiDAR technology Forestry, natural resource assessment and site development
LiDAR (Light Detection And Ranging)
is regarded as the most powerful technology for de-livering highly accurate terrain data in a timely and cost-effective manner.
LiDAR is an active optical remote sensing system emitting laser pulses, which are partially reflected by the ground. The distance between the sensor and the ground surface is measured by the time elapsed between sending and receiving the laser pulse. Li-DAR systems have the unique capability of measu-ring the three-dimensional structure of the Earth surface in great spatial detail.
Three highly accurate products can be derived:
- Digital Terrain Models (DTM)- Digital Surface Models (DSM)- 3D Point Clouds indicating the vertical structure of the vegetation.
In combination with simultaneously acquired aerial images this extremely powerful dataset supports a wide range of applications such as land mapping, cartography, exploration, construction work, spatial planning and forest management.
Forests are in the focus of climate change mitigati-on, which requires detailed information on carbon storage and potential degradation processes. Re-mote sensing is the key technology in the context of forestry projects, natural resource assessment and sustainable site development. LiDAR techno-logy adresses key components, such as very high-resolution surface topography, terrain topography, forest canopy height and forest biomass and carbon storage in pristine and logged over forests.
In the context of High Carbon Stock Forests (HCS), sustainable forest management and climate change mitigation (REDD+) it is of vital importance to de-termine the amount of carbon stored in forests.
Aerial image, digital terrain model (DTM) and digital surface model (DSM) showing an oil palm plantation
LiDAR is useful for
- Forest Management (tree height, biomass, vertcal canopy structure)
- Measuring, Reporting and Verification (MRV) of Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) and other climate change mitigation projects, as LiDAR addresses all components of MRV
- Sustainable Site Development, as high-resolution terrain topography supports hydrological and infrastructure planning.
LiDAR transect through a typical tropical rainforest showing variations in tree height and aboveground biomass. The aerial photo shows the location of the transect
RSS LiDAR Services
RSS provides highly specialized services on LiDAR processing and expert knowledge on inventory de-sign and field data collection. Highly accurate above ground biomass (AGB) estimates and carbon stock models that represent the wide AGB and carbon stock variability of forests in great spatial detail are at the core of RSS’ services. Targeted forest surveys are planned and conducted by RSS forestry experts.
RSS uses LiDAR technology to generate very high resolution Digital Surface and Digital Terrain Models (DSMs and DTMs) from which Canopy Height Mo-dels (CHMs) can be derived.
High-resolution DTMs also assist in the planning of infrastructure (e.g. roads, skid trails etc.), which is es-sential for sustainable site development.
RSS has assisted customers to detect small logging tracks and drainage canals even under dense forest canopies to support hydrological planning and im-proved water management.
Highly accurate LiDAR DTMs have been used to op-timize water management in degraded peatlands and for the planning of dam locations.
Using multitemporal LiDAR transects allows the de-termination of peat subsidence due to decomposi-tion, fire and compaction with centimeter accuracy.
An emerging technology: UAV-borne LiDAR
The latest trend in LiDAR technology are sensor sys-tems small enough to be mounted of unmanned ae-rial vehicles, commonly referred to as drones. Drone technology greatly enhances the cost effectiveness of LiDAR by strongly reducing avation costs while keeping the full technical capability!Agricultural as well as forestry applications benefit from the flexibility provided by UAV-borne LiDAR which allows for easy and efficient LiDAR and aerial photo acquisition, processing and monitoring.
Imagery taken by unmanned aerial vehicles and cutting edge processing dramatically reduces costs
Different stages of tropical forest degradation as seen in LiDAR data. Above: Primary forest; Center: Logged over forest; Below: Shrubland with regenerating forest
LiDAR Reference Projects of RSS
HCS+ case study Gabon – Field testing the HCS+ Carbon neutral approach in three oil palm concessions in Gabon with a total area of 90,000 ha.
BIOCLIME - The Biodiversity and Climate Change Project sup-ports Indonesia to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the forestry sector and to conserve High Conservation Value fo-rest ecosystems in South Sumatra. One task in this study is the derivation of Above Ground Biomass (AGB) based on more than 40,000 ha transects of airborne LiDAR. RSS is responsible for project management and implementation, LiDAR mission planning, data evaluation and biomass modelling. LiDAR pro-ducts: DSM, DTM, CHM and AGB
Aboveground carbon storage and forest structure – This re-search project investigated the effects of field sampling design and density of forest inventory on the accuracy of LiDAR based aboveground biomass models.
Hydrological Restoration - Hydrological restoration of a peat swamp catchment in Kalimantan. 3D modelling of peat dome hydrology. Processing of more than 25,000 ha airborne LiDAR transects. Products: DSM, DTM, CHM and DTM model for the whole catchment
FORCLIME - Indonesian-German Forest and Climate Change Programme in Kalimantan (Technical Component). One task in this study was the derivation of forest Above Ground Biomass (AGB) estimates based on airborne LiDAR data in three dis-tricts in Kalimantan, Indonesia (Kapuas Hulu, Berau and Mali-nau). 75,000 ha of airborne LiDAR data was processed. RSS was responsible for project management and implementation, Li-DAR data evaluation and biomass modelling. LiDAR products: DSMs, DTM, CHM and AGB
Kalimantan LiDAR Survey - In the framework of the Indonesi-an-Australian Forest Carbon Partnership, a large-scale airborne LiDAR survey of 693,800 ha was realized in Central Kalimantan. RSS as main contractor was responsible for project manage-ment and implementation, LiDAR data evaluation and carto-graphy. LiDAR products: DSM, DTM, CHM, drainage infrastruc-ture and AGB
Topic CustomerSelected Projects
2015Sustainable Palm Oil ManifestoHCS+ Study
2014-2016German International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH
Indonesia
2014 – 2015Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft DFGIndonesia
2012 - 2015WWF Germany
Indonesia
2011-2014German International Cooperation (GIZ) GmbH
Indonesia
2010 - 2013AusAid, Government of Australia
Indonesia
RSS Company Profile
RSS - Remote Sensing Solutions GmbH is since more than 10 years one of the leading value-adding companies for earth observation in Germany. RSS is specialized in satellite image processing and in-terpretation, aerial image interpretation and pho-togrammetry, application development for geoin-formation system (GIS), digital cartography in the fields of environmental monitoring, nature conser-vation, forest inventories, REDD+ and carbon ac-counting and natural hazards (impact assessment and prevention).
RSS provides custom-made, application-oriented services and innovative solutions. Our customers are among municipal, national and international au-thorities, NGO‘s and private companies. RSS is currently involved in various forestry and climate change mitigation projects in SE Asia, the Brazilian Amazon, Africa and Eastern Europe, with special focus on REDD+, HCS(+), MRV, REL, and ca-pacity building.
For further information visit www.rssgmbh.de
Relevant publications
Konecny K., U. Ballhorn, P. Navratil, J. Jubanski, S.E. Page, K. Tansey, A. Hooijer, R. Vernimmen & F. Sie-gert (2015). Variable carbon losses from recurrent fires in drained tropical peatlands. Global Change Biology 2015, 10.1111/gcb.13186 Englhart S., J. Jubanski & F. Siegert (2013). Quan-tifying dynamics in tropical peat swamp forest bio-mass with multi-temporal LiDAR datasets. Remote Sensing, Vol. 5, 2368-2388; doi:10.3390/rs5052368 Jubanski J, U. Ballhorn, K. Kronseder, J. Franke & F. Siegert (2013). Detection of large above-ground biomass variability in lowland forest ecosystems by airborne LiDAR. Biogeosciences, 10, 3917–3930, 2013. doi:10.5194/bg-10-3917-2013 Kronseder K, U. Ballhorn, V. Böhm & F. Siegert (2012). Above ground biomass estimation across fo-rest types at different degradation levels in Central Kalimantan using LiDAR data. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation 18 (2012) 37–48
Englhart S., V. Keuck &, F. Siegert (2012). Mode-ling Aboveground Biomass inTropical Forests Using Multi-Frequency SAR Data—A Comparison of Me-thods. IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing, Vol. 5, No. 1, February 2012 Ballhorn U., J. Jubanski & F. Siegert (2011). ICESat/GLAS Data as a Measurement Tool for Peatland To-pography and Peat Swamp Forest Biomass in Ka-limantan, Indonesia. Remote Sens. 2011, 3, 1957-1982; doi:10.3390/rs3091957 Englhart S., V. Keuck &, F. Siegert (2011). Abo-veground biomass retrieval in tropical forests — The potential of combined X- and L-band SAR data use. Remote Sensing of Environment 115 (2011) 1260–1271 Ballhorn U., F. Siegert, M. Mason & S. Limin (2009). Derivation of burn scar depths and estimation of carbon emissions with LIDAR in Indonesian pea-tlands. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, December 15, 2009 vol. 106 no. 50, 21213-21218
