Use of LiDAR technology for quantification and design of park, garden and urban tree structure

Abstract

Abstract It is essential to know the parameters of trees making up a city’s green infrastructure for evaluating the functions of its ecosystems and ecosystem services being provided. Traditional methods of creating tree inventories proved to be slow and costly, while not being able to provide sufficient data for ecosystem services mapping. Laser scanning methods can be used to obtain accurate measurements of tree dimensions, crown size measurements and overall tree structure details. They can be used to analyze large forested areas at a fraction of the time needed to measure each tree individually by hand. The goal of this study was to conduct an approbation of ground-based 3D scanning methods and test their capabilities of obtaining tree parameters for use in green infrastructure inventories. The research is based on scans and analysis of sites of the green fund of Moscow, Russia, during the vegetation periods of the years 2019-2020. LiDAR scanning allows automatic georeferencing of data and creates detailed 3D geometry of tree objects. This enables previously impossible measurements of tree dimensions to be taken and calculated: aboveground biomass and crown area. Such methods can automate the process of creating tree inventory databases, while eliminating subjective bias when recording measurements.