An integrated GIS tool for automatic forest inventory estimates of Pinus radiata from LiDAR data

This article presents an integrated GIS tool for automatic forest inventory of Pinus radiata plantations from light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data. Built as a set of tools running in the desktop GIS software package ArcGIS, it integrates spatial analysis, LiDAR data analysis and image segmentation techniques as well as empirical tree models to support forest inventories of Pinus radiata on an individual-tree basis. The integrated GIS tool allows users to define or select plots to extract LiDAR data for forest inventory, build and process canopy height models (CHMs) from the extracted LiDAR data through surface modelling, delineate individual trees on the CHMs by applying the marker-controlled watershed segmentation technique, and to derive forest inventory estimates based on the CHMs and identified individual trees through spatial analysis and tree modelling using the empirical models. It takes advantage of combining GIS and LiDAR to automatically conduct a forest inventory, build and manage a forest inventory database and to spatially and statistically summarise and visualise the inventory data. Although developed for forest inventories of Pinus radiata plantations in Victoria, Australia, the integrated tool can be customised for forest inventories of Pinus radiata plantations in other regions and for other types of plantations by incorporating empirical tree models built and calibrated for those regions and those species of trees.