Airborne LIDAR : a new technology for mapping alpine complex forest stands

National audience; Sustainable forest management requires a precise knowledge of the forest resource and existing infrastructure, to consider harvesting scenarios. LIDAR, a remote sensing technology, is used by many countries to model and map the forest resource . In France, forests are more heterogeneous (in species and structures). An area-based method has been adapted to calibrate empirical models relating dendrometric parameters measured in the field with metrics derived from LIDAR (thanks to a research program ANR-Foresee). The results show that it is possible to characterize forest resources in different forests: from plain with beech or pine regular forest to mountain covered by heterogeneous fir-spruce forests. The accuracy of LIDAR inventories is equivalent to that of traditional field methods. Moreover, LIDAR allows to achieve a continuous mapping of modeled variables, and calculations at different scales (plots, forest). If thousands of square kilometers have been mapped using LIDAR data, demonstrators are underway at ONF to evaluate the operational use of these innovative methods, before a possible implementation to large scales.