Life Sciences Commons^™

Evaluation Of Airborne Lidar As A Tool For Obtaining Sustainable Forest Management Of Maine's Forests, Rei Hayashi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The first objective of this study was to evaluate the applicability of using a low density (ca. 1 point m􀀀2) discrete-return LiDAR for predicting maximum tree height, stem density, basal area, quadratic mean diameter, and stem volume using an area-based approach. The research was conducted at the Penobscot Experimental Forest in central Maine, where a range of stand structures and species composition is present and generally representative of northern Maines forests. Using a variety of high dimensional LiDAR metrics, a prediction model was developed using random forest, a nonparametric approach, based on reference data collected in fixed radius circular plots. …