ForestView® - University of Idaho Example

Collaborating Partners

Since 2019, Northwest Management Inc has continued to work with UofI and UIEF research facility to increase opportunities for students and curriculum. In support of these efforts NMI has collected two additional LiDAR datasets over the UIEF, 2020 and 2021, both at 20ppm. Both additional datasets have been accompanied by the collection of fixed-radius sub-meter georeferenced field inventory data. NMI plans to continue acquiring high-resolution LiDAR and field data in future years.

Each dataset has been processed through ForestView® to yield a Digital Inventory®. The Digital Inventory® products have been leveraged by research faculty, graduate students, the UIEF managers and in planning efforts to further our understanding of LiDAR uses and accuracies within forest inventory and operational forestry.

Single-tree Digital Inventory® Vintages

Currently, there are three single-tree Digital Inventory® vintages of the UIEF. The focus of the following examples are within the “box” shown in this image for the West Hatter Creek watershed. Within the West Hatter Creek watershed, the 2020 Lidar CHM and tree peaks from the Digital Inventory® provide planning-level insights to operational foresters. The Tree peaks for this example were colored by predicted tree

Publications

The Evolution of Forest Inventory

A novel smartphone-based activity recognition modeling method for tracked equipment in forest operations

Use of Individual Tree and Product Level Data to Improve Operational Forestry

Accuracy of a LiDAR-Based Individual Tree Detection and Attribute Measurement Algorithm Developed to Inform Forest Products Supply Chain and Resource Management

2020 Lidar Inventory Canopy Height Model

The Digital Inventory® can be accessed through the ForestView® portal and custom selections of trees or stands can be made by a user.

Use the Slider to see before and after images

Species Distribution

This is the 2021 Digital Inventory® for the UIEF with single-trees colored by height. It is an interactive layer laid over-top the canopy height model (CHM). Several summary statistics are displayed automatically for each selection of Height, DBH, BA, and Volume.

Use the Slider to see before harvest and after harvest images of forest change

Species Distribution

Gross Board FT by Species

Gross Volume Board Ft

Statistics	Gross Volume BF
# of trees selected	10,819
sum of values	1,183,640
minimum	.76
maximum	857
average	109
standard deviation	161

Single Tree Statistics

Within the interactive space of the ForestView® portal one has access to single-tree resolution data if there are analyses or questions that can not be answered at the stand or polygon-selection level. Additionally, the application window of the portal provides interaction with the full single-tree database allowing users to view full-stand or custom-selection attribute tables, apply custom or provided data filters, and then export the desired selection as a CSV file for use on a local machine.

Select a tree in the graphic for details

Digital Inventory

Stand ID: 484
Watershed: West Hatter Creek
Acres: 22.3
Gross Volume board feet: 704,209
Tree Count: 4,223
TPA: 189.6
Board feet per acre: 31,590

TREE #1

TREE #2

TREE #3

TREE #4

TREE #5

TREE #6

TREE #7

TREE #8

ArcOnline 3D viewer format

The UIEF has also been published into an ArcOnline 3D viewer format where the positions and single-tree metrics for the entire forest can be interacted with on a base map of Google Earth Imagery. Multiple copies of the digital forest can be uploaded in this viewer and used to simulate silvicultural prescriptions or post fire mortality by removing trees within one copy to visualize either “harvested” or “burned” conditions.

OBJECTID	351302
stand_id	484
species	douglas fir
live_dead	live
height_ft	126
dbh_in	21
basal_area_ft2	2.62
social position	dominant
gross_volume_bf	590.71
objectid_1	937283

Measures Change Over Time

The following images are from the same location on the UIEF. The middle images are of the 2020 Lidar while the righthand images are of the same location in the 2021 Lidar. The upper Left image displays the height change in meters for the trees remaining after two harvest operations as expressed growth of the un-harvested trees.

Individual Tree Change and Growth Rate Detection

Height Change (meters)

UofI CHM 2020 Lidar

UofI CHM 2021 Lidar

Logging Path Detection from Multi-year Lidar

Height Change (meters)

UofI DEM 2020 Lidar

UofI DEM 2021 Lidar

These additional images describe the near-surface detectable changes between the 2020 and 2021 Lidar acquisitions. The first image on the left displays near-surface changes in elevation that coincide with harvest operations and equipment pathways.