REGISTRATION, GEOREFERENCING AND PROCESSING OF MULTIPLE LASER SCANS ACQUIRED BY TERRESTRIAL LASER SCANNER FOR ESTIMATING TREE MORPHOLOGICAL PARAMETERS

Abstract

The trees inventory is very important for forestry and environment-related issues, where tree morphology is one of the key components. LiDAR technology is being selected over other techniques for the trees three-dimensional mapping and inventory. In this paper a methodology for point cloud registration and georeferencing of LiDAR point cloud, and computation of tree morphological parameters, namely tree height, crown diameter, crown projection area is presented. The instruments used for the point cloud acquisition, registration and georeferencing were total station, global navigation satellite system, terrestrial laser scanner. Data from all three instruments were transformed into a common coordinate system that is Universal Transverse Mercator coordinate system. In transformed point cloud, the z-axis of the coordinate system is towards plumb line. The tree height, crown diameter, crown projection area are computed based on point cloud-derived canopy height model and tree top detection.