Area 1 — LiDAR-Based Forest Sensing and Inventory

Conventional forest inventory requires surveyors to measure trees one by one. Our lab has developed portable, backpack-mounted LiDAR systems that integrate multiple sensors — including cameras, LiDAR units, GPS, and inertial navigation systems — and can automatically locate and measure every tree in a stand across hundreds of acres in a matter of hours. A patent is currently pending on this system, which has been tested in natural forest environments in the U.S. and internationally.

By combining data from multiple platforms — backpack systems, drone-mounted units, and manned aircraft — the team can produce fine-resolution, wall-to-wall forest inventories at scales never before achievable. This multi-platform approach, rather than relying on any single sensor, allows the system to capture both the fine structural details of individual trees and the broad spatial patterns of entire stands.

This image depicts the different parts of a tree. The blue is the ground, the orange is debris, the green is the trunk, the yellow is the crown, and the pink is shrub.

Publications

  1. Lin, Y.-C., Shao, J., Shin, S.-Y., Saka, Z., Joseph, M., Manish, R., Fei, S., & Habib, A. (2022). Comparative analysis of multi-platform, multi-resolution, multi-temporal LiDAR data for forest inventory. Remote Sensing, 14(3), 649. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14030649
  2. Shao, J., Lin, Y.-C., Wingren, C., Shin, S.-Y., Fei, W., Carpenter, J., Habib, A., & Fei, S. (2024). Large-scale inventory in natural forests with mobile LiDAR point clouds. Science of Remote Sensing, 10, 100168. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.srs.2024.100168
  3. Zhou, T., Ravi, R., Lin, Y.-C., Manish, R., Fei, S., & Habib, A. (2023). In situ calibration and trajectory enhancement of UAV and backpack LiDAR systems for fine-resolution forest inventory. Remote Sensing, 15(11), 2799. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15112799
  4. Zhou, T., Zhao, C., Fei, S., & Habib, A. (2024). Forest Feature LiDAR SLAM (F2-LSLAM) for backpack systems. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, 212, 96–121. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2024.04.025
  5. Zhao, C., Fei, S., & Habib, A. (2026). Integrated Scan Simultaneous Trajectory Enhancement and Mapping (IS2-TEAM) for fine resolution forest inventory using backpack LiDAR. Remote Sensing of Environment, 334, 115212. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2025.115212