Ground truth measurement of trees using terrestrial laser for satellite remote sensing

Forest monitoring for environmental policy requires accurate and efficient ground-truthing techniques in the field. In this paper, a portable terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) is utilized to estimate leaf area index (LAI) of mixed forest stands in Christchurch, New Zealand. Our method converted laser XYZ coordinates to orthographic coordinates to create fish-eye images, from which LAI was estimated. The results were highly correlated with LAI estimates from three traditional techniques: radiation obtained by AccuPAR (R² = 0.81), Landsat TM (R² = 0.79), and fish-eye lens photography (R² = 0.91). This novel technique is a simple and efficient way to collect and analyze LAI and provides good ground truth data for satellite remote sensing.