There are three types of forest metrics within this database. They all are derived from the raw Lidar point clouds using the FUSION software. The three types are canopy closure, height metric, and stem mapping. The canopy closure and height metric grids cover a variety of canopy heights and grid cell sizes.
1. Canopy closure: This metric measures the canopy closure of a given horizontal cell above a given vertical threshold (height break). Canopy closure can inform many landscape models and provide insight on how much light will reach the forest floor.
2. Height Metric: This metric measures the height at which a given percent of the first return points are below. This analysis is done in a given grid cell size. Height metrics give various statistics of the elevation above ground for a given set of Lidar points. In forested landscapes, first return height metrics describe the forest canopy.
3.This stem map locates the approximate center of all trees in the HJ Andrews Research Forest greater than 10 meters. In addition to the stem location, a canopy radius is also provided.
FUSION and TreeVaWA software programs were used to develop this data.
Watershed Sciences, Inc. (WS) collected Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data from HJ Andrews and the Willamette National Forest (NF) on August 10th and 11th 2008. Total area for this AOI is 17,705 acres. The total area of delivered LiDAR including 100 m buffer is 19,493 acres.
Keith A. Olsen, Theresa J. Valentine, Thomas A. Spies
can inform many landscape models and provide insight on how much light will reach the forest floor, describe the forest canopy, and provide information on individual trees (heights, locations, canopy size).
