Comparison of individual crowns among species in Japanese conifer plantations using airborne data for leaf-on and leaf-off conditions

Japan is one of the most extensively forested countries in the world. We investigated seasonal process of conifer plantations using high-resolution optical airborne data based on an individual tree crown (ITC) approach. ITC information for the stand polygons was extracted automatically and compared to detailed field survey data. In comparison leaf on and leaf off image with selected from 4 representative plantations, accuracy of leaf off image was better than that of leaf on image. We found that this approach can be effectively applied to the management of dominant trees in conifer plantations without multiple layers or mixed high density stands in Japan.