High-Density UAV-LiDAR in an Integrated Crop-Livestock-Forest System: Sampling Forest Inventory or Forest Inventory Based on Individual Tree Detection (ITD)

 Forest plantation area is constantly increasing across the globe, and the goods and services provided by these forests are becoming tremendously diverse. In this context, Brazilian forest plantations stand out with a prominent position, in which more than 10 million ha supply industries of pulp and paper, fuelwood, and solid wood products. Brazilian forest industries demand millions of cubic meters of wood annually. Thus, fast and reliable information regarding stand structure and wood availability is crucial to ensure industrial demand.

Eucalypt stands are the most important source of short fiber pulp, fuelwood, and charcoal due to their fast growth and wood properties. Usually, fast-growing eucalypt plantations are grown in monoculture. There is, however, a recent increase in crop-livestock-forest system area. Eucalyptus trees established in crop-live-stock-forest systems are usually planted in rows, presenting lower stand density and diverse canopy structures. Consequently, defining sampling strategies for these trees becomes a challenging endeavor, resulting in a lack of literature-review based recommendations. Forest inventories are considered an essential source of quantitative and qualitative information for the management of forest resources. However, the traditional methods are considered complex and laborious activities, and remote sensing methods have emerged as auxiliary tools for attaining fast and reliable data. In, the authors highlighted the main technologies for remote sensing-assisted forest inventories, and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) was listed as a major player. [register below to download full whitepaper]