Using Remote Sensing to Count Trees

Operational administration of green assets such as forests and urban green cover ordinarily necessitates reliable, timely and well-run information about its developments and current status. Tree count management is important for sustaining conservational stability and ecological biodiversity. A systematic tree inventory of the forested areas and in the urban areas can help us involvedly view the causes of decline of forests in the area, decline in green cover in urban areas etc. and assist in decision making. Customary methods for counting trees are labor-intensive catalogue in the field or on anelucidation of large scale aerial photographs. Nevertheless these methods are pricey, time consuming and not pertinent to large, sequestered areas. Remote sensing technology know-how is the operational method for management and monitoring of green resources.

Methods of Extracting Remotely Sensed Data
There are different methods of getting the remotely sensed data, like the ones listed below.

• LiDAR
• Satellite Images
• UAV/Drone Images
• Terrestrial Photogrammetry

LiDAR
LiDAR methods of data collection is progressively used in forestry applications but also employed in urban environments for green cover calculations, tree canopy mapping and tree counting. Vast point clouds are usually converted software specific readable formats and are used to do the mapping for the tree counting and urban forestry mapping.

Satellite Images
One of the most important resources in the earth that needs constant monitoring and needs to be accurately measured for effective management is forest resources. Remotely sensed high-resolution or very high resolution satellite image data are crucial in this management, since it provides detailed information to administrators and planners for better decision making

UAV/Drone Images
Hyperspectral remote sensing, which uses the modern satellite sensors ability to capture the data in multiple-bands, in amalgamation with a properly updated land information system is understood to be a worthy technique to assist in making fast decisions. The practice of using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) platform for many remote sensing applications is done to combine the advantages of traditional remote sensing techniques and the inexpensiveness of operating such techniques. UAV drones can fly at varying altitudes subject to the objective of the mission and end-result type. This tractability allows for optimization of the procedures according the meteorological conditions over a given area and the user requirements.
Terrestrial Photogrammetry

Tree counting is crucial for cultivated area and environmental management, biodiversity monitoring and many other applications. Regardless of the factor that satellite and aerial images have been widely used to distinguish, demarcate and count individual tree in urban areas and forested lands, till such techniques becomes widely accessible and knowledge of processing such data is increased, the traditional methods still hold the sway and might be detrimental for the green cover we all wish to have.

About the Author
Anil Narendran Pillai – (Vice President – Geomatics @ SBL) Mr. Pillai heads the GSS (Geospatial Services) domain at SBL. He has worked in the digital mapping, remote sensing, and GIS industries for over 23 years. He has 23+ years experience managing and coordinating GIS projects and 12 years senior management experience. He has extensive experience in all aspects of aerial and satellite imaging technology and applications. He has utilized remotely sensed satellite and airborne imagery for a variety of environmental applications including site location analysis, forestry, telecommunications and utility corridor mapping. He has a strong background in management of GIS and Photogrammetry imaging projects to support Government and private industry needs.His Passion lies in Need Analysis and Documentation, Topographical Mapping (ArcGIS), Spatial Data Management, Integrity and Security, GIS Data transformations and projections from multiple sources, Image Processing Software user testing and documentation, Project Coordination and Tech. Support, Inter-agency communication and support, 3D Data Generation and Management,Project Management, Digital Photogrammetry, Satellite Image Processing, Pre-Sales Presentations.

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Source: GIS Lounge - Maps and GIS