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Abstract In close‐range remote sensing data collected in a forest, occlusion often causes incomplete or sparse point cloud representations of individual trees, impeding accurate 3D reconstruction of tree architecture and estimation of tree height and volume. Recent developments in deep learning (DL) for 3D data have produced approaches for point cloud completion, which could potentially be applied to trees. We explored the potential of a DL approach to fill gaps in dense point clouds representing the main structures of deciduous trees by applying an existing transformer‐based completion model (PoinTr). Complete point clouds are required as training data, but even dense terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) data sets contain gaps caused by occlusion, making it nearly impossible to acquire such data. We therefore investigated the ability of point cloud completion models trained on a range of synthetic data sets to handle occlusion patterns in real‐world point clouds. Despite the limited data set, we successfully fine‐tuned a general pre‐trained completion model to fill gaps within 1 m3 segments of tree point clouds. Fine‐tuning on synthetic tree data improved the model's ability to complete tree objects compared with training on diverse artificial objects. However, the quality of the predictions was influenced by the level of sophistication of the synthetic data. Our results demonstrate that incorporating even limited real‐world TLS data during training can considerably improve completion results but may introduce additional noise in the predictions. 3D point cloud completion with DL has the potential to improve and fill gaps in point clouds of individual trees, facilitating further steps in the processing and analysis of 3D forest data.

Understanding and monitoring the surrounding environment increasingly rely on its 3-D representations. However, the often high costs of 3-D data equipment limit its wide usage, and low-cost solutions are in demand. Here, we propose a novel approach based on spherical stereo videos captured with a known baseline (distance between the cameras) for a low-cost and efficient 3-D point cloud reconstruction. In a forest environment, we evaluated 1) the influence of baseline length on point cloud quality and 2) the suitability of the generated point clouds for extracting primary forest attributes (tree position and diameter). Our results show that the proposed approach allows for feasible 3-D reconstruction of complex forest plots. The highest point cloud quality was achieved with a baseline of 60 cm. This setup enabled the correct detection of more than 65% of the trees within the forest plots, producing an average tree position error between 30 and 50 cm and clearly outperforming other setups. A multiscale model-to-model cloud comparison analysis showed signed distances between the generated point cloud and the reference data with zero mean and 1 m standard deviation. We demonstrate that the proposed approach can be a valuable low-cost solution for 3-D point cloud reconstruction, facilitating forest assessment and monitoring.

Monitoring biodiversity in forests is crucial for their management and preservation, especially in light of increasing climatic disturbances. However, traditional methods of surveying forest biodiversity, such as the inventory of tree-related microhabitats (TreMs), are costly and time-consuming. For many years, terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) was the main method for producing highly accurate 3D models of forests. However, with recent advancements in 3D scanning technologies, there are now numerous alternatives available on the market. The aim of this study was to evaluate the performance of four different 3D data acquisition methods, i.e. close-range photogrammetry (CRP), fish-eye photogrammetry (FEP), mobile laser scanning (MLS), and mixed reality depth camera (MRDC), in terms of accuracy and ability to measure biodiversity (TreMs) at tree-stem level, in comparison to TLS. Analysis was performed based on geometric accuracy and point neighbourhood relevance. CRP was the most accurate alternative to TLS for TreM measurement with a median error of 1.5 cm, while FEP provided a good balance between accuracy (median error 1.4 cm) and speed of data collection. Although MLS showed promising results (median error 1.6 cm), noise in the point cloud limited its ability to identify TreMs. MRDC, on the other hand, had lower quality (median error 3.6 cm) and lower point density, making it unsuitable for TreM segmentation. Nevertheless, the study demonstrated the feasibility of augmenting the real world with virtual content at single-tree-stem level using mixed reality technology. Overall, the 3D scanning technologies presented hold great promise for recording the evolution of biodiversity at stem level.

Automatic identification and mapping of tree species is an essential task in forestry and conservation. However, applications that can geolocate individual trees and identify their species in heterogeneous forests on a large scale are lacking. Here, we assessed the potential of the Convolutional Neural Network algorithm, Faster R-CNN, which is an efficient end-to-end object detection approach, combined with open-source aerial RGB imagery for the identification and geolocation of tree species in the upper canopy layer of heterogeneous temperate forests. We studied four tree species, i.e., Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.), silver fir (Abies alba Mill.), Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.), and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.), growing in heterogeneous temperate forests. To fully explore the potential of the approach for tree species identification, we trained single-species and multi-species models. For the single-species models, the average detection accuracy (F1 score) was 0.76. Picea abies was detected with the highest accuracy, with an average F1 of 0.86, followed by A. alba (F1 = 0.84), F. sylvatica (F1 = 0.75), and Pinus sylvestris (F1 = 0.59). Detection accuracy increased in multi-species models for Pinus sylvestris (F1 = 0.92), while it remained the same or decreased slightly for the other species. Model performance was more influenced by site conditions, such as forest stand structure, and less by illumination. Moreover, the misidentification of tree species decreased as the number of species included in the models increased. In conclusion, the presented method can accurately map the location of four individual tree species in heterogeneous forests and may serve as a basis for future inventories and targeted management actions to support more resilient forests.

Historical black-and-white (B&W) aerial images have been recognized as an important source of information for assessing vegetation dynamics. However, the use of these images is limited by the lack of multispectral information, as well as by their varying quality. It is therefore important to study and develop methods that are capable of automatic and accurate classification of these B&W images while reducing the need for tedious manual work. The goal of this study was to assess changes over 30 years in woody vegetation cover along alpine treeline ecotones using B&W aerial images from two time points. A convolutional neural networks model was firstly set up based on three structure classes calculated from Airborne Laser Scanning data using the B&W aerial images from 2010. Then, the model was improved by active addition of training samples of those that were wrongly predicted from historical B&W aerial images from 1980. A comparison with visual image interpretation revealed generally high agreement for the class “dense forest” and lower agreement for the class “group of trees”. The study illustrates that vegetation changes at the treeline ecotone can be detected in order to assess areawide long-term vegetation dynamics at a fine spatial resolution.

Tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) play an important role in maintaining forest biodiversity and have recently received more attention in ecosystem conservation, forest management and research. However, TreMs have until now only been assessed by experts during field surveys, which are time-consuming and difficult to reproduce. In this study, we evaluate the potential of close-range terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) for semi-automated identification of different TreMs (bark, bark pockets, cavities, fungi, ivy and mosses) in dense TLS point clouds using machine learning algorithms, including deep learning. To classify the TreMs, we applied: (1) the Random Forest (RF) classifier, incorporating frequently used local geometric features and two additional self-developed orientation features, and (2) a deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) trained using rasterized multiview orthographic projections (MVOPs) containing top view, front view and side view of the point’s local 3D neighborhood. The results confirmed that using local geometric features is beneficial for identifying the six groups of TreMs in dense tree-stem point clouds, but the rasterized MVOPs are even more suitable. Whereas the overall accuracy of the RF was 70%, that of the deep CNN was substantially higher (83%). This study reveals that close-range TLS is promising for the semi-automated identification of TreMs for forest monitoring purposes, in particular when applying deep learning techniques.

Although wall-to-wall, accurate, and up-to-date forest composition maps at the stand level are a fundamental input for many applications, ranging from global environmental issues to local forest management planning, countrywide mapping approaches on the tree type level remain rare. This paper presents and validates an innovative remote sensing based approach for a countrywide mapping of broadleaved and coniferous trees in Switzerland with a spatial resolution of 3 m. The classification approach incorporates a random forest classifier, explanatory variables from multispectral aerial imagery and a Digital Terrain Model (DTM) from Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data, digitized training polygons and independent validation data from the National Forest Inventory (NFI). The methodological workflow was optimized for an area of 41,285 km2 that is characterized by temperate forests within a complex topography. Whereas high model overall accuracies (0.99) and kappa (0.98) were achieved, the comparison of the tree type map with independent NFI data revealed significant deviations that are related to underestimations of broadleaved trees (median of −3.17%). Constraints of the tree type mapping approach are mostly related to the acquisition date and time of the imagery and the topographic (negative) effects on the prediction. A comparison with the most recent High Resolution Layers (HRL) forest 2012 from the European Environmental Agency revealed that the tree type map is superior regarding spatial resolution, level of detail and accuracy. The high-quality map achieved with the approach presented here is of great value for optimizing forest management and planning activities and is also an important information source for applications outside the forestry sector.