Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

PERSPECTIVES OF USE OF LIDAR DEVICES FOR FOREST INVENTORY IN KOMI REPUBLIC

Dmitriy Olegovich Kvochkin and Vladimir Aleksandrovich Ustyugov

Abstract

The article contains the review of the devices for the photo-detection of objects in the three-dimensional space and determination of the distance to them (LIDAR). This rather new technology is widely used in the forestry. Lidar devices allow to automate the inventory work of the forest resources, and to increase the volume of statistic data, collected from the sampling units. The high speed of data collection and the accuracy of the laser measurements allow to refuse the traditional inventory methods performed by manual tools. This, in its turn, leads to the decrease of the human factor impact and cost-cutting of the inventory process. The works described in the article represent the long experience of European and Russian collaborations of the forest specialists, engineers and programmers of the development of methods of automated identification of characteristics of forest stands and single trees according to the data obtained by means of the ground and aerial laser scanning. The estimation of the applicability of the lidar technology for forest Inventory of the Komi Republic (Russian Federation) is represented.