Deriving Vegetation Structure in Ecological Applications from LiDAR Imagery

Abstract

Recent advances in remote sensing have presented significant potential to help improve ecological management. This paper presents an overview of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) technology and its applications to derivation of vegetation structure in ecological studies. A review on relevant literature is provided to present the current status of the research on LiDAR applications. A preliminary case study is used to show a common procedure of LiDAR data analysis and some issues in real-world applications.

Keywords: Ecology, LiDAR, remote sensing, vegetation structure