Analysis of the Influence of Leaf Inclination Angle Distribution on the Leaf Area Inversion of Isolated Tree Based on Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Leaf inclination angle distribution plays an important role in indirect leaf area measurement methods. Path length distribution method (PATH) is an indirect leaf area measurement method based on Beer's Law, which has been applied to isolated trees with Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS). However, it can only set the leaf projection G to a constant value. In this paper, the PATH method considering leaf inclination models is introduced, which allows the G function to be a variable corresponding to leaf inclination. On the basis of this method, this paper explores the effect of different leaf inclination angle distribution assumptions on the inversion of the leaf area of isolated trees based on TLS. The results show that compared with the measured leaf inclination, the relative errors of the inversion results based on the six typical leaf inclination assumptions are between −14.3 % to +41.2%, which indicates that leaf inclination has a significant effect on the inversion of the leaf area. Further, experiments in this paper show that the mean value of the G function is a relatively accurate representation of it.