Analysis of Side-Lap Effect and Characterization of Understory Vegetation Using Full-Waveform ALS

Abstract

Airborne full-waveform LiDAR (ALSFW) is able to register forest structure properties, essential for fire prevention, in more detail than airborne discrete LiDAR (ALSD). However, few studies have analyzed ALSFW methodological parameters (i.e., voxel size and assignation value) due to the complexity and lack of processing tools. In this paper we analyze the influence of the pulse density and ALSFW methodological parameters on the ALSFW metrics, as well as the characterization of understory vegetation through ALSFW. Results show that the influence of pulse density on ALSFW metrics may be modelled and the differences reduced by modifying ALSFW methodological parameters. Additionally, the potential of ALSFW for characterizing the mean height (R2 = 0.949) and volume (R2 = 0.951) of the understory vegetation was also proved.

Keywords

• airborne laser scanning
• LiDAR
• terrestrial laser scanning (TLS)
• pulse density
• voxel size
• forest structure
• metrics