AUTOMATED INDIVIDUAL TREE DETECTION IN AMAZON TROPICAL FOREST FROM AIRBORNE LASER SCANNING DATA

ABSTRACT Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) derived individual tree crown attributes can potentially serve as a tool for ecology and forest dynamics studies and reduce field inventory costs. In this study, four methods of individual tree detection (ITD), Watershed, Silva et al. (2016), Dalponte and Coomes (2016), and Coomes et al. (2017), were evaluated in a tropical forest under sustainable forest management, situated in the State of Rondônia, Brazil. An automated tree matching procedure was developed in order to minimize the error when matching individual tree count from LiDAR and field da...