Individual Tree Crown Delineation Method Based on Multi-Criteria Graph Using Geometric and Spectral Information: Application to Several Temperate Forest Sites

Abstract

Individual tree crown (ITC) delineation in temperate forests is challenging owing to the presence of broadleaved species with overlapping crowns. Mixed coniferous/deciduous forests with characteristics that differ with the type of tree thus require a flexible method of delineation. The ITC delineation method based on the multi-criteria graph (MCG-Tree) addresses this problem in temperate monospecific or mixed forests by combining geometric and spectral information. The method was used to segment trees in three temperate forest sites with different characteristics (tree types, species distribution, planted or natural forest). Compared with a state-of-the-art watershed segmentation approach, our method increased delineation performance by up to 25%. Our results showed that the main geometric criterion to improve delineation quality is related to the crown radius (performance improvement around 8%). Coniferous/deciduous classification automatically adapts the MCG-Tree criteria to the type of tree. Promising results are then obtained to improve delineation performance for mixed forests.