Towards an operational lidar resource inventory process in Australian softwood plantations

Airborne lidar technology can play a significant role in revolutionising wood resource inventories in Australian softwood plantations. Plantation managers are interested in the technology but unsure of how to implement it. Hence there is a need to demonstrate and compare various lidar analysis techniques to provide guidance for future operational inventory programs. This paper presents findings from a trial airborne lidar inventory undertaken in a 5,000 ha Pinus radiata plantation in the Southern Tablelands of New South Wales (NSW), Australia. The study demonstrates that both area-based and object-based approaches for extracting key plot level attributes (i.e. maximum height, mean height, stocking density and total stand volume) can achieve predictive models with R-squared values ranging from 0.81 to 0.97.