My presentation given about the work done at the University of Bolzano on LESTO, the upcoming GIS toolbox for LiDAR based sciences, currently focused on forestry analyses.

1. 1
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21
A GIS BASED TOOLBOX FOR FORESTRY ANALYSIS
COMPARISON OF METHODOLOGIES
Andrea Antonello, Alessandro Andriolo,
Floreancig Valentino, Franceschi Silvia,
Comiti Francesco, Tonon Giustino
LESTO
LiDAR Empowered Sciences Toolbox Opensource
2013-09-17 IX Congresso Nazionale SISEF - Bolzano
Libera Universita' di Bolzano

2. 2
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 The research needs
FORLIDAR, Estimation of Alpine forests structure and biomass
and their potential role in increasing flood hazards by using
LiDAR data
Fusion
Lastools
Bibliographic research
Field data on 15 plots
Dedicated LiDAR flight

3. 3
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 The research needs
FORLIDAR, Estimation of Alpine forests structure and biomass
and their potential role in increasing flood hazards by using
LiDAR data
Fusion
Lastools
Bibliographic research
Field data on 15 plots
Dedicated LiDAR flight
development of
dedicated tools

4. 4
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Modules overview
Raster
Tops
extraction
LocalM
axim
a
Crow
n
extraction
Popescu
Region
grow
ing
W
atershed
Pointcloud
Tops
extraction
Localm
axim
a
Crow
n
extraction
Segm
entation
General
las
reading/w
riting
las
spatialindexing
norm
alization
filters
m
orphers
Derived
CHM
extraction
/DSM
Axellson
-adaptive
tin
Las
to
rasterinterp.(ex.IDW
)
Las
triangulation

5. 5
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Las data indexing
Las reading/writing/indexing
6GB of data

6. 6
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21
Las reading/writing/indexing
main spatial
index on files
6GB of data
use of a unique spatially
indexed file
per file data
spatial index
*.las *.las *.las
Las data indexing
6GB of data

7. 7
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Las data indexing
use a shapefile to access any point cloud data
in a folder of las data

8. 8
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Las data indexing

9. 9
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Las data indexing
h [m]
count
lower
canopy
layer
higher
canopy
layer
Vertical extraction: height distribution

10. 10
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Raster Tops/Crowns extraction
- normalization of data (DSM-DTM)
- inverting (watershed)
- thresholding
- gaussian (or similar) smoothing
- production of a custom DTM (Adaptive tin)
- use of morphing techniques
Data preprocessing modules

11. 11
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Raster Tops/Crowns extraction
Tops extraction modules
- local maxima
- circular or square window
- fixed window or height dependent window (Popescu)
- morphing and normalization

12. 12
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Raster Tops/Crowns extraction
Crown extraction modules
- Popescu circles (based on height)
- Watershed (Soile)
- Region growing

13. 13
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Pointcloud extraction
Tree segmentation
Single tree approach, extraction of points for each tree
A
B dummy
C
D
dmin1 dmin2
#1 #2
A
B dummy
C
D
dmin1 dmin2
#1 #2
dt (r)
A New Method for Segmenting Individual Trees from the
Lidar Point Cloud
Wenkai Li, Qinghua Guo, Marek K. Jakubowski and Maggi Kelly

14. 14
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Pointcloud extraction
Tree segmentation
Single tree approach, extraction of points for each tree

15. 15
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Pointcloud extraction
Tree segmentation
Single tree approach, extraction of points for each tree

16. 16
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 What is LESTO?
- Open Source
- GIS aware
- library dedicated to
- sciences that make use of
- LiDAR data
LESTO
LiDAR Empowered Sciences Toolbox Opensource
Maintained by the team of prof. Tonon
at the Faculty of Science and Technology
at the Free University of Bolzano.

17. 17
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 LESTO's "User Interface"
LESTO
LiDAR Empowered Sciences Toolbox Opensource
uDig
open source
desktop GIS
Spatial Toolbox of uDig
userfriendly toolbox for processing libraries

18. 18
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Handle heavy processing
Geographic scripting
Leave the computer there to work for you

19. 19
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Future plans
-
-
the first tools in the toolbox are forestry related
and particularly dedicated to a single tree approach
to calculate the forest structure biomass
the toolbox is open to contributions on any LiDAR related
(future might even bring roads or buildings extraction)
-
-
(...depending on the results on the validations in progress...)
stabilization and release of the current modules
data quality analysis (i.e. which data quantity/quality is
necessary to gain certain results?)
future developments will bring:

20. 20
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21 Open and shared approach
LESTO will be released under Open Source License
(GPL v3) on the JGrasstools website after the first
round of deep testing+fixing.
The open science approach is a natural choice for our
team and we think it is in general for a university
department.
Our thoughts reflect the "think global, fix local"
approach, and even if the tools are released globally,
they are meant in first place to be used by our
professionals and local administration on the territory.

21. 21
Bozen-Bolzano
Free University of
/21
Useful links:
LESTO
LiDAR Empowered Sciences Toolbox Opensource
http://www.jgrasstools.org
http://www.udig.eu