Top-down drone view of a small woodland pond fringed with green trees.

Aerial surveys / Industry

Individual tree detection and forest structure mapping

Who it's for
Foresters, estates, landowners and land managers
Accuracy
F1 score of about 0.94 in closed-canopy conifer
Delivered as
Files for QGIS or QField

How it works

  1. FlyOne LiDAR flight maps the treetops and the ground under them.
  2. DetectSoftware finds each tree and measures its height and crown.
  3. CheckWe test the results against trees measured by hand.
  4. DeliverThe tree map and models, as files for QGIS or QField.
  5. Keep trackIf you want it, a QField system for your team to log each tree.
Forest from the air, and a LiDAR point cloud of the trees

What you get

  • LiDAR point cloud of a forest plot in natural colour, on a black background.Point cloudMillions of measured points, from the treetops down to the ground.
  • The same forest point cloud, coloured by height from green to red.Canopy heightTree heights across the whole site.
  • LiDAR terrain model of a mound with the trees removed, coloured by height.Ground under the treesA terrain model with the trees taken away.
  • Tree mapEvery tree, with its position, height and crown size.
  • Stocking and biomassTrees per hectare, and rough biomass estimates.
  • Data quality noteWhere the data is strong, and where to treat it as a guide.

How accurate it is

In closed-canopy conifer plantation the method scores an F1 of about 0.94. F1 is a standard score from 0 to 1 that counts both missed trees and false ones. We report it separately for each type of stand.

We developed the method on a conifer restock site in the Scottish Borders, and are extending it to broadleaf and mixed woodland.

Top-down drone view of dense conifer treetops.

Tree health

With multispectral imaging, the survey also shows tree health and stress you can't see by eye.

Invasive rhododendron

Multispectral imaging picks out rhododendron from the plants around it. LiDAR measures how tall and dense it is, and maps the slopes underneath.

Split image of a woodland pond: normal colour on the left, false colour on the right.
The same woodland pond in normal colour (left) and false colour (right), where healthy plants stand out.

For rhododendron clearance, you get

  • Where it growsA map of the rhododendron across the site.
  • How much there isA biomass estimate, area by area.
  • How hard to clearA terrain map of slopes and access.

After the survey

A survey shows the trees on one day. We can add a QField tree inspection system, so your team logs damage and work done against each tree on their phones. QGIS and QField are free, so there are no subscriptions.

A phone running QField in the field, with a form open over an aerial image.

See agriculture for water flow and plant health on farmland.

Ask for a quote: mail@geoklein.com

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