Operational Trial to Operational Reality LiDAR at Forestry Tasmania

摘要

Forestry Tasmania has recently completed evaluation of the technical, operational and financial feasibility of using LiDAR across a range of routine forest management activities. During this operational trial outcomes exceeded expectations. The use ofLiDAR was found to lead to large quality improvements and cost savings in the areas investigated. Daunting technical issues associated with processing and handling large volumes of data were successfully overcome. The trial found that it was technicallyfeasible to integrate LiDAR into Forestry Tasmania's inventory and planning systems, and reap cost reductions and large qualitative improvements through better knowledge of the forest resource. LiDAR was found to be an excellent means of characterisingthe forest resource as a basis for forest management, and can provide the means of phasing out of strategic air photo interpretation (API) as the basis of resource estimations. It has been demonstrated that LiDAR can form the basis of a high precision inventory system, with reduced requirement for plot measurement. The trial identified cost savings in areas as diverse as road location and timber inventory. When extrapolated across the business, savings were found to more than justify investment in a complete coverage of the productive forest estate. Savings were found to accrue from decreases in measurement and planning effort (for harvesting and road construction) and improvements to the quality of information on which to make investment decisions oninfrastructure development. Furthermore many of these benefits were found to persist for many years after the initial data capture. It is estimated that Forestry Tasmania's LiDAR acquisition and processing costs will be recouped within five years. The operational trial has proven the technical, operational and financial feasibility of adopting LiDAR as a forest management tool at Forestry Tasmania.