3D surface reconstruction of Terrestrial Laser Scanner data for forestry

Recently, Terrestrial Laser Scanners (TLS) have received considerable attention for their potential applications in forest management, archaeology, ecology as well as remote sensing and urban planning applications. Although TLS is limited in its use in small areas, it is feasible to be applied to forest inventory and deliver better sampling accuracy, objectivity, and can enhance or replace field surveys in forestry. This paper presents a framework for using TLS measurements taken by Leica HDS6000 TLS produce 3D point cloud data and to model individual trees. In particular, the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the 3D point cloud data for four different types of trees derived by TLS is discussed and the processing steps are presented. The Crust algorithm is used for the reconstruction of surfaces of arbitrary topology from the 3D point cloud data. The four individual tree models derived from the TLS system and their 3D surface reconstruction by the field survey of individual tree surfaces are possible with this technology.