1. Automatic delineation of forest patches in highly fragmented landscapes usingloure cod point clouds
- Author
-
Carlos Cabo, Covadonga Prendes, Cristina Santín, José V. Roces-Díaz, and Celestino Ordóñez
- Subjects
Correctness ,LiDAR ,010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences ,Computer science ,NDVI ,Multispectral image ,0211 other engineering and technologies ,Point cloud ,Forestry ,Ranging ,02 engineering and technology ,Vegetation ,lcsh:QK900-989 ,01 natural sciences ,Normalized Difference Vegetation Index ,non-forest woody vegetation ,high-resolution imagery ,Lidar ,lcsh:Plant ecology ,Segmentation ,forest mapping ,Cartography ,021101 geological & geomatics engineering ,0105 earth and related environmental sciences - Abstract
Accurate mapping of landscape features is key for natural resources management and planning. For this purpose, the use of high-resolution remote sensing data has become widespread and is increasingly freely available. However, mapping some target features, such as small forest patches, is still a challenge. Standard, easily replicable, and automatic methodologies to delineate such features are still missing. A common alternative to automated methods is manual delineation, but this is often too time and resource intensive. We developed a simple and automatic method from freely available aerial light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and aerial ortho-images that provide accurate land use mapping and overcome some of the aforementioned limitations. The input for the algorithm is a coloured point cloud, where multispectral information from the ortho-images is associated to each LiDAR point. From this, four-class segmentation and mapping were performed based on vegetation indices and the ground-elevation of the points. We tested the method in four areas in the north-western Iberian Peninsula and compared the results with existent cartography. The completeness and correctness of our algorithm ranging between 78% and 99% in most cases, and it allows for the delineation of very small patches that were previously underrepresented in the reference cartography.
- Published
- 2020