A national overview of airborne lidar application in ... · SilviLaser 2011, Oct. 16-19, 2011 – Hobart, TAS, AU 1 A national overview of airborne lidar application in Australian

SilviLaser 2011, Oct. 16-19, 2011 – Hobart, TAS, AU

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A national overview of airborne lidar application in Australian forest agencies

R.Turner1, N.Goodwin2, J. Friend3, D.Mannes4, J.Rombouts5 and A.Haywood6

1 Forest Science Centre, Department of Primary Industries New South Wales, Sydney, NSW

[email protected]

2 Remote Sensing Centre, Department of Environment and Resource Management, Ecosciences Precinct, Dutton Park. QLD

[email protected]

3Planning, Environment and Silviculture, Forest Products Commission, Bunbury, WA [email protected]

4 Resource Information, Forestry Tasmania, Hobart, TAS [email protected]

5 Resource Planning, Forestry South Australia, Mount Gambier, SA

[email protected]

6Resource Planning, Department of Sustainability and Environment, VIC Andrew [email protected]

Abstract: This paper provides a narrative of airborne lidar application across Australian forest agencies. It includes a brief history of early lidar research and operational trials, as well as current programs and future directions on a state by state basis. This review demonstrates a diverse range of lidar applications and increasing adoption of lidar technology within state agencies across Australia. Keywords: Airborne lidar, remote sensing, national review, forestry 1. Introduction It is now ten years since the first lidar trials were conducted in Australian forests and, assisted by the growing accessibility of lidar datasets and the development of new processing procedures and software tools, there has been a dramatic escalation in lidar use in forest agencies. Today most forest agencies have experienced a paradigm shift from explorative research to large scale operational programs. Lidar technology is having a significant impact on Australian forest management, and continues to revolutionise wood inventory programs and harvest planning processes. The lidar forestry community in Australia is relatively small but active; and with representatives in every state. Several national lidar forestry forums have been held across Australia to share ideas and experience. The first was held in Brisbane (Queensland) in 2002, the second was in Hobart (Tasmania) in 2007, and most recently another workshop was again held in Hobart in 2010. A consistent issue raised at these workshops is the importance of disseminating


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information on significant lidar research and potential operational applications to the general forestry community within Australia. The aim of this report is to provide a useful summary of past and present lidar work in each state forest agency. Of course, a comprehensive review of every research trial and operational program is well beyond the scope of this paper, however, a general overview will give a sense of the wealth of information and experience that has emerged over the past decade, and will serve to guide future research directions. 2. State overview This overview concentrates on forest agencies within the six states of Australia (i.e. Queensland (QLD), New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (VIC), Tasmania (TAS), South Australia (SA) and Western Australia (WA)). As far as the authors are aware, airborne lidar has not yet been utilised for forestry purposes in the two territories; the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) and the Northern Territory (NT). This paper focuses on public commercial forests and plantations, but it should also be noted that lidar use in private plantations and public national parks and reserves has also increased significantly. A basic overview of lidar application is presented on a state by state basis. 2.1 Queensland The remote sensing centre within the Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management (DERM) has used lidar over the last decade for quantifying a range of biophysical attributes and to support the implementation of DERM's vegetation management policy and programs. The Injune Landscape Collaboration Project (ILCP) (Lucas et al. 2010a) has been an important lidar research site for Queensland since 2001. Injune is located in the Brigalow Belt of central Queensland and the vegetation consists mainly of open poplar box (Eucalyptus populnea) woodland with patches of denser white cypress pine (Callitris glaucophylla) regeneration. Lidar was used to evaluate its utilisation in estimating biomass and a set of forest structural attributes (Tickle et al. 2001, and Lucas et al. 2006) and results showed that stand-based lidar derived biomass models were highly correlated with field data (R2 = 0.92, SE = 12 Mg/ha). This site was reflown with lidar in 2009 and is now the focus of further research into detecting forest structural change over time. DERM has been involved in several research studies to better understand the relationship between field data, terrestrial laser scanning, sensor configuration, multi-temporal lidar, and forest structure. For example, a series of field monitoring plots throughout Queensland have had several repeat airborne lidar acquisitions between 2000 and 2009 (Lucas et al., 2010b) to better understand the impacts of drought and land management practices on forest structure and species composition. In 2005 DERM, in collaboration with the University of Newcastle, investigated the use of lidar intensity and crown transparency to distinguish between forest species in white cypress woodland (Moffiet et al. 2005). This study showed that vegetation types could be discriminated using the proportion of singular returns and a "porosity" index based on the proportion of lidar points penetrating the canopy. Forestry Plantations Queensland (FPQ), now owned by Hancock Queensland Plantations Pty Ltd, has incorporated lidar into their operational program. Over a three year period (2005 – 2007) FPQ captured lidar data across their entire softwood plantation estate (188,000 ha) (http://www.fpq.net.au/). This information was used mostly for digital terrain model (DTM) derived products (e.g. slope, hillshade, and contours) to assist with classifying harvesting terrain classes in pre-harvest planning (e.g. above and below 24o slope). Lidar was also used to characterise forest structure including stratification of stands based on height (equivalent to site index) to assist pre-harvest inventory.


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The largest airborne lidar acquisition to date has been the Protecting Our Coastal Communities (POCC) project which covers an area of around 60,000 km2 along the Queensland coast (see Figure 1). Commencing in 2009, this project, jointly funded by the state and local government, involved multiple providers/sensors for different regions. Data was captured with an average sampling density of 2 returns per sq.m. Although primarily intended for planning flood risk and urban development along the coastline, it also provided an excellent baseline for monitoring coastal forests and an opportunity for research such as the calibration/validation of spaceborne sensors, input for forest monitoring applications, as well as the extraction of many spatial products.

Figure 1: Current lidar coverage (in black) within Queensland. Note: this is only the lidar data held by DERM with the total area exceeding 68000 km2.

Lidar data has since been utilised in over 50 sites strategically located to capture the variability in forest structure and composition. In addition to developing new relationships between field data and lidar, this data has been used operationally to calibrate and validate statewide methods and products (Armston et al. 2009). For example, lidar derived layers have been used to validate foliage projective cover (FPC) and woody extent which were derived from Landsat (25m) and MODIS (250m) products and to explore the relationships between canopy variables (Armston et al., 2008; Gill et al. 2009; Scarth et al., 2008 and Witte et al. 2000). More recently, the southeast Queensland region of the coastal capture was used to produce a calibrated FPC layer using 20 field sites located across the 8500 km2 area and results showed that field measurements of FPC were highly correlated with first return lidar data (R2=0.92, RMSE=5%). In addition to providing a baseline of FPC for southeast Queensland, it may help to improve the calibration of FPC using satellite imagery in forested areas with steep topography. 2.1 New South Wales In NSW, around 2.2 million hectares of state-owned commercial forests are managed by Forests New South Wales (FNSW). With 230,000 ha of softwood plantation, FNSW is also the largest softwood plantation owner in Australia. The first lidar trial began in 2001 when 1,000 ha of


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eucalypt forest were flown on the Central Coast. The focus of this trial was above-ground biomass assessment and an automated canopy segmentation process was developed (Turner 2006). In the same year, the first large scale trial occurred as a spin-off from a much larger (1.8 million hectare) catchment study by the Murray Darling Basin Commission (Liu et al. 2003). This project provided data across 90,000 ha of river red gum forests (Eucalyptus camaldulensis) along the southern border. The data was used to remap road and drainage networks, identify and estimate thinning resources, and plan harvesting events. In addition, a small (450ha) wood inventory trial showed it was possible to predict maximum height (R2 = 0.9), mean dominant height (R2 = 0.76), basal area (R2 = 0.72) and gross volume (R2 = 0.79) (Turner & Webster 2005, and Turner 2007). In 2004 a study funded by the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) acquired lidar data across 1,813 ha of native forest near Coffs Harbour on the North Coast. The project investigated the influence of scanning at different altitudes (1000, 2000, and 3000 m), footprint sizes (0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 m), scan angles (10° and 15° angle off nadir) and point sampling densities (0.18 to 1.9 m) on forest structure assessment (Goodwin et al. 2006). By 2006, another regrowth forest site, covering an area of 12,800 ha, had been flown on the Central Coast. The Jilliby Catchment Area (JCA) was a multiagency collaborative research project and data was used for two studies running simultaneously. The first focused on the application of airborne lidar for spatially mapping forest fuel characteristics (Roff et al 2006 and Turner 2007), while the other study explored the potential for forest health monitoring by mapping Bell Miner Associated Dieback (BMAD), (Haywood & Stone, 2011). Another 6,000 ha trial in coastal eucalypt forests was completed in 2008. A number of compartments were selected to investigate the benefits of lidar data in harvest planning and field supervision (Turner 2007 & 2008). It was estimated that lidar data reduced the planning effort by 2 to 3 person days per compartment plan and provided a 10% time saving in field supervision during harvesting, with less walking required to locate exclusion zones and merchantable trees. Automated drainage maps from lidar-derived DTMs were also tested. Precision surveys along two creek lines indicated an excellent correlation between survey and DTM elevation (R2 = 0.99) with a mean elevation error of 0.6 m, while automated drainage networks had a centreline mean error of 1.65 m. A second large scale study was implemented in early 2008 when 240,000 ha of native forest were flown in North Central NSW near the town of Baradine. The Pilliga Remote Sensing (PILRES) project covered cypress pine/eucalypt woodland on predominantly flat terrain. A wood resource inventory utilised airborne lidar (to provide height and stocking) and multispectral digital photography (to define stands of commercial forest types). Lidar-derived canopy height models (CHMs) were used for a strategic thinning program and the high resolution DTMs assisted the update of road and drainage networks. The project was expanded by another 129,000 ha during 2009 across 93 state forests scattered throughout western NSW. This was also the first time that simultaneous lidar and digital photography (colour infra-red) was acquired, making it easier to combine attributes at crown level from both sensors (i.e. data fusion). The first case study in a NSW softwood plantation was initiated in July 2008. The Plantation Airborne Resource Inventory Appraisal (PARIA) project was undertaken in a 5,000 ha Pinus radiata plantation in south-central NSW. The study evaluated airborne lidar and digital multispectral aerial photography for wood resource inventory, structure stratification and forest health monitoring (Stone et al. 2008, Stone et al. 2010 and Turner et al 2011). A remote sensing guide for softwood plantation managers (Turner and Stone 2010) was also produced as well as a new in-house ArcGIS lidar toolbox.


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In late 2009, FNSW and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) obtained an Australian Research Council (ARC) grant to investigate full-waveform lidar applications and to develop a commercial software package for on-screen interpretation. In 2010, full-waveform lidar was acquired at three sampling densities (i.e. 2, 5 and 10 pulses per sq.m) over a 140 ha pine plantation west of Sydney. The data is being used to develop a new waveform processing technique to minimise lidar negative tree height bias (Park et al. 2011) and to model 3D structure with both airborne and terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data (Park et al. 2010). Development of the lidar interpretation software is well underway and a working prototype should be ready for field testing by December 2011. FNSW’s largest operational program is currently in progress throughout the northern tablelands and mid-north coast of NSW. The project is capturing almost 296,000 ha of state forest, including around 17,500 ha of pine plantation. The data will be used for general forest management, forest inventory, stand structure assessment and drainage mapping. Increasingly, lidar data is becoming more accessible from other sources. Local shire councils are acquiring lidar for flood mitigation and urban planning, and data covering around 198,000 ha of state forest has been made available. In 2008, the NSW State Government also purchased a Leica ALS50-II laser scanner that is operated by the Land and Property Management Authority (LPMA) based in Bathurst. LPMA has an ongoing lidar acquisition program for their state mapping needs and where data is captured over state forests it is also provided to FNSW. Since 2001, the accumulative total of all airborne lidar coverage in NSW state forests has reached 943,000 ha, which represents 43% of the total native forest estate. In addition, around 22,000 hectares of softwood plantation have been captured covering almost 10% of the total plantation area. Figure 2 illustrates the widespread coverage of this data across NSW.

Figure 2. NSW map showing the location of lidar coverage in state forests (in black).

2.3 Victoria The Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) is responsible for the sustainable management of 7.8 million hectares of public native forests (DSE 2008). DSE has been investigating the use of lidar as a land management tool since 2001 (Choma et al., 2005).


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Data capture started predominantly for DEM construction (Choma et al., 2005) but has expanded to include forest structural inventory (Haywood and Sutton 2009), forest stand delineation (Haywood and Stone, 2009), biomass estimation (Kandel et al., 2009), fuel load mapping (Haywood et al, 2010). DSE have recently developed a method to assess riparian vegetation health using lidar in conjunction with aerial imagery (Johannsen et al., 2010). This has included the recent acquisition of 26,000 km of lidar acquisition across Victoria’s stream network (see Figure 3). All of the lidar data used in DSE’s projects has been acquired through the Victorian Coordinated Imagery and Elevation Program's (http://www.land.vic.gov.au/Land/). The Program’s mission is to develop an efficient and effective service and cost sharing model for the acquisition of spatial imagery and elevation products for the State of Victoria and the Program Purchase Partners. The Program coordinates the purchase of aerial imagery and elevation products across Victoria for a range of government and non-government organisations. It is designed to facilitate uses, imagery needs, reduce costs, avoid duplication and to contract manage projects. It streamlines the acquisition, storage and access to aerial images and elevation products for end users. Instead of having to purchase images for a specific purpose, Purchase Partners can share images and use them again for a range of different purposes, from urban growth area planning, property searches and asset management, through to tracking native vegetation. This has enabled the Victorian land management community to leverage off a coordinated investment.

Figure 3: Map showing extent of lidar coverage in Victoria.

2.4 Tasmania Forestry Tasmania (FT) has been investigating the use of lidar as a forest management tool since 2004 when several small areas were captured to evaluate a variety of applications, including operational planning and forest inventory. Although data capture for this exercise was designed primarily with a research focus, the early investigations showed promise for operational use but at the time the application of the technology was considered too expensive (Bennett 2005). A fresh look at the results from the 2004 trial concluded that it may be possible to make a financial case for lidar if savings could be realised from across a wider range of applications.


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To investigate this further, a large scale operational trial was established in north-east Tasmania in 2007 with the acquisition of 32,000 ha. The study covered a diverse range of forest types and carefully monitored and evaluated the benefits of lidar on forest management and operational planning. To compare lidar with traditional approaches, many coupes were “double planned” (i.e. with and without the availability of lidar data) by different forest planners. This provided a direct estimate of savings that could be realised across the forest management spectrum. Results from the operational trial were sufficiently encouraging for FT to commence the operationalisation of lidar in 2009 (Mannes & Stone 2009). Lidar capture has since been progressively rolled out and to date over 700,000 ha of data has now been acquired mainly over State Forest and surrounding lands including private forests (see Figure 4). Lidar derived data is being used in Tasmania across the spectrum of forest management activities, ranging from engineering, forest harvest management, and resource inventory, to plantation management and general mapping. Where lidar data exists, it is fully integrated into day to day forest management activities. .

Figure 4. Tasmania map showing the location of lidar coverage (in grey).

Research into lidar continues to have a strong operational focus. Most research activity is in the forest inventory sphere, and involves investigation of better metrics and methodologies for the prediction and projection of timber variables (timber volume, specifically eucalyptus volume, stem size distribution, basal area and stocking levels) from lidar. Active investigation of image analysis techniques to assist with mapping and forest characterisation is ongoing and is beginning to yield positive results. Research is also underway to develop better ways to display lidar derived data to increase its utility for field foresters. Ongoing monitoring of the operational effectiveness of lidar continues, to determine whether operational results are being achieved in ‘real’ forest management. 2.5 South Australia The first forestry related airborne lidar campaign was undertaken by the South Australian Forest Corporation (ForestrySA) in 2002. The objective of the trial was to capture data over radiata pine plantations covering a range of age classes to gain an understanding of their potential for applications such as terrain mapping, forest inventory and site quality assessment. The CSIRO utilised some of these early data (with funding from the now Forest and Wood Products Australia) and results from this initial research were reported in Lovell et al. ( 2003) and Lovell et al. (2005).


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The work by CSIRO demonstrated that lidar data effectively showed spatial variation in stand height and density, suggesting potential application for site quality (SQ) assessment. This lead to further work by ForestrySA (Rombouts, 2006) and triggered two more research oriented lidar campaigns in 2006 and 2007 to demonstrate and refine lidar-based SQ assessment across a range of sites. In 2007, ForestrySA also participated in a regional project involving several government departments to build a Digital Elevation Model (DEM) for the lower south-east of the state, and mainly for hydrological modelling purposes. As a result ForestrySA acquired low density data over its entire south-eastern pine plantation estate (105,000 ha). Figure 5 provides a map of the geographic extent of lidar coverage in South Australia. These data were also successfully utilised to demonstrate that SQ could be accurately assessed with relatively sparse lidar sampling density acquired at high altitude (Rombouts et al, 2010).

Figure 5: Map showing lidar extent within South Australia.

In late 2007, ForestrySA made the decision to take lidar-based SQ assessment into operational use and conventional SQ assessment was discontinued. The first operational SQ lidar campaign took place in December 2008 and the first SQ maps were uploaded in corporate databases in July 2009. The outcome of the project, in particular the efficiency of the field sampling design, was evaluated and possible improvements identified (Rombouts et al, 2010). A second operational survey is scheduled for the summer of 2012. Having successfully implemented lidar-based SQ assessment, ForestrySA is now turning its attention to product oriented pre-harvest inventory. In addition to work with airborne lidar systems, ForestrySA has also investigated Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS) from 2003 to 2006 as an industry partner with CSIRO validating the Echidna full-waveform laser scanning system (Lovell et al. 2003; Culvenor et al. 2006). Commencing in 2008, ForestrySA was also involved with the Collaborative Research Centre for Forestry in testing commercial TLS for pre-harvest inventory purposes (Murphy et al., 2010). A follow-up project in collaboration with Treemetrics from Ireland is currently underway. The objective is to capture detailed information on tree stems and defects, enabling optimisation of cutting patterns for each tree and stand, within the constraints imposed by prevailing market


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conditions. Another objective is to explore the integration of ground and airborne lidar data to take advantage of the complementary qualities of both sensor types. 2.6 Western Australia Aerial lidar for forestry applications is still in its infancy within Western Australia. Although a number of agencies within WA are utilising lidar for DTM purposes, there had been limited application within the forestry sector. The first forestry related application was completed in 2007 by the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC). This was a trial conducted in four native forest sites, totalling 1,288 ha, but no further lidar trials or projects have been undertaken by DEC. In 2010, the Forest Products Commission (FPC) began a major resource assessment of its 40,000 ha radiata pine plantation estate. Due to limitations in staffing resources and strict project deadlines, a purely traditional ground-based assessment program was not considered feasible, whereas lidar technology offered the potential to capture broad scale plantation resource information in a more timely and efficient manner. FPC began its first aerial lidar program in February, 2011 acquiring data across 13,500 ha of pine plantation within a region known as the Blackwood Valley, located 50km south-east of Bunbury (see Figure 6). This region was considered suitable for a trial as it contains a significant area of steep terrain, has limited access for ground-based assessment teams and it is relatively spatially compact compared to the majority of the FPC estate.

Figure 6. Map showing the extent of lidar coverage (black) in WA softwood plantations.

The primary focus of the project is to use lidar data, in conjunction with multispectral imagery, to establish estimates of current plantation characteristics such as stocking, height and stand volume. Once these derivatives have been attained, they will be used to assist in long-term wood supply modelling applications. Data will also be used to derive additional value added products, such as DTM’s and slope maps. This information will then be passed to planning and operational staff where it can be used to assist making on-ground operations more efficient. The project will also undertake a cost/benefit analysis of the process to compare it with conventional ground-based inventory methods. Moreover, the economics and practicality of collecting lidar data across less spatially compact plantation resource areas will be investigated. If significant benefit can be demonstrated then it is likely that airborne lidar technology will become an integral part of the FPC inventory assessment program.


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3. Summary Airborne lidar forestry applications in Australia have rapidly advanced over the past decade. Today every state has at least trialled lidar over their native forests or plantations, and most forest agencies have shifted from researching potential lidar applications to a larger and more ambitious operational phase. The state summaries have illustrated the wide range of forestry applications that are either under investigation or already operational. Applications include wood resource inventory, harvest planning and supervision, site quality assessment, road and drainage mapping, forest classification, strategic thinning evaluation, forest fuel assessment, canopy health monitoring and biomass estimation. This report clearly demonstrates the high level of state agency support and commitment to developing lidar forestry applications. It follows that lidar technology will continue to create inroads into mainstream operational and planning activities and make a significant contribution to forest management in Australia. Acknowledgements The authors wish to thank the following people for their kind assistance in collating information for this national overview.

Christine Stone (Dept. Primary Industries, NSW) Tony Brown, Paul McBain and Morgan Roche (Forests NSW) Glenn Jones (Land and Property Management Authority, NSW) John Armston (Dept. of Environment and Resource Management, Qld) Paul Rampant (Dept. of Environment & Conservation, WA) Colin Reugebrink and Michelle McAndrew (formerly Forestry Plantations Queensland) Andrew Yates (Parks and Conservation, ACT)

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