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Figure 1: Apparent reflectance (left) and range (right) hemispherical images from Riegl VZ400 scans at the Queensland DSITIA GOLD0101 long-term monitoring plot.
Descriptor | Data link | Layer name |
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Persistent URL | http://www.auscover.org.au/purl/tls-riegl-qa-all-sites | |
GeoNetwork record | Not available yet | |
Data Portal (in Development) | http://qld.auscover.org.au/public/html/field |
Item | Detail |
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Rights | Copyright 2010-2020. JRSRP. Rights owned by the Joint Remote Sensing Research Program (JRSRP). Rights licensed subject to Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY). |
Licence | Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0. |
Access | These data can be freely downloaded and used subject to the CC BY licence. Attribution and citation is required as described at http://www.auscover.org.au/citation. We ask that you send us citations and copies of publications arising from work that use these data. |
Ground lidar, also known as Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS), is a ranging instrument that provides detailed 3D measurements directly related to the quantity and distribution of plant materials in the canopy. Measurements can be used for applications requiring quantification of vegetation structure parameters, tree and stand reconstruction, and terrain analysis.
Scans have been collected in Australia using two Riegl VZ400 waveform recording TLS instruments. One is co-owned and operated by the Remote Sensing Centre, Queensland Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation and the Arts (DSITIA) and the TERN Auscover Brisbane Node, University of Queensland. The second is owned and operated by Wageningen University, Netherlands.
An automated TLS processing system has been developed by the Remote Sensing Centre, Queensland Department of Science, Information Technology, Innovation, and the Arts (DSITIA) using the Riegl RiVLib and RiWaveLib C++ libraries and the Sorted Pulse Data Library (SPDLib; Bunting et al., 2013b). Data is made available in published open standards including compress LAS format (LAZ; ASPRS, 2010) and the HDF-5 Sorted Pulse Data format (SPD; Bunting et al., 2013a).
Item | Detail |
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Spatial resolution (metres) | 30 m radius |
Spatial coverage (degrees) | 110.000000 to 155.001329 E, -10.000000 to -45.000512 N |
Temporal resolution | 1 day |
Temporal coverage | 2012-09-29, ongoing |
Instrument | Terrestrial laser scanner |
Item | Detail |
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Spatial representation type | vector - point |
Spatial reference system | WGS 84 |
Item | Detail |
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Name | John Armston |
Organisation | Remote Sensing Centre - Qld Department of Science, Information Technology and Innovation (DSITI) |
Position | Senior Scientist |
john.armston@qld.gov.au | |
Role | pointOfContact |
Address | Remote Sensing Centre, DSITI, EcoSciences Precinct |
Telephone | (07) 3170 5665 |
The following organisations contributed to the data collection:
Thesauri | Keyword |
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GCMD | EARTH SCIENCE > BIOSPHERE > VEGETATION > VEGETATION COVER |
CF | vegetation_area_fraction |
FoR | Environmental Sciences > Ecological Applications = 0501 |
There are three main thesauri that AusCover recommends:
There has been no absolute validation of biophysical products produced from the Riegl VZ400 in Australian Ecosystems. An exception is Calders et al. (2014), who found that estimates of canopy height from the Riegl VZ400 were within x% of estimates from airborne lidar across five sites ranging from open woodland to closed forest. A large area validation of these parameters is forthcoming for estimates of stem diameter, stand basal area, and canopy height as part of the TERN Wide Synthesis B project.
In a comparison of commercial TLS instruments in Brisbane, Newnham et al. (2012) found PAVD profiles from a Riegl VZ1000 detected more material present in the upper canopy compared to a FARO Focus-3D, Leica C-10, and Leica HDS5000. Estimates were also stable across different pulse angular spacing, a result replicated by Calders et al. (in review). Newnham et al. (2012) also found that PAVD profiles were within x% of theoretical profiles generated from field measurement.
Further comparisons of ground lidar instrumentation and algorithms are being undertaken through the Terrestrial Laser Scanning International Interest Group (TLSIIG; http://tlsiig.bu.edu). See Armston et al. (2013) for further information.
Item | Product link |
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SLATS star transect | SLATS Star Transect Data |
Leaf area index (LAI) | Not Available Yet |
Hemispherical photography | Hemispherical Photography |
Armston, J., Newnham, G, Strahler, A., Schaaf, C., Danson, M., Gaulton, R., Zhang, Z., Disney, M., Sparrow, B., Phinn, S., Schaefer, M., Burt, A., Counter, S., Erb, A., Goodwin, N., Hancock, S., Howe, G., Johansen, K., Li, A., Lollback, G., Martle, J., Muir, J., Paynter, I., Saenz, E., Scarth, P., Tindall, D., Walker, L., Witte, C., Woodgate, W., Wu, D. 2013. Intercomparison of terrestrial laser scanning instruments for assessing forested ecosystems: A Brisbane field experiment. AGU 2013 Fall Abstracts.
Bunting, P., Armston, J., Lucas, R., Clewley, D., 2013a. Sorted pulse data (SPD) library. Part I: A generic file format for lidar data from pulsed laser systems in terrestrial environments. Computers & Geosciences, 56: 197-206.
Bunting, P., Armston, J., Clewley, D., Lucas, R., 2013b. Sorted pulse data (SPD) library. Part II: A processing framework for lidar data from pulsed laser systems in terrestrial environments. Computers & Geosciences, 56: 207-215.
Calders, K., Armston, J., Newnham, G. Herold, M., Goodwin, N. In review. Implications of sensor configuration and topography on vertical plant profiles derived from terrestrial LiDAR. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology.
Newnham, G., Armston, J., Muir, J., Goodwin, N., Culvenor, D., Pusche, P., Nystrom, M., Johansen, K., 2012. Evaluation of terrestrial laser scanners for measuring vegetation structure. CSIRO Sustainable Agriculture Flagship, available on https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/pub?pid=csiro:EP124571.
Item | Detail or link |
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Publication | |
Validation report | |
Online info | Field data collection protocol |
Data is collected at one or more sampling points at a plot, depending on the protocol. There are currently five separate sampling protocols used for ground lidar acquisition. The sampling design for each protocol with multiple scan positions are illustrated below. The specific protocol used and deviations from this strategy are outlined in the associated shapefile/KMZ file for this data set.
When a scan position was established, the scanner was set-up as follows:
Version label | Detail |
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1.0 | Initial release |
Filenames for instrument data conforms to the AusCover standard naming convention. The standard form of this convention is:
<sensor category code><instrument code><product code>_<longitude>e<latitude>s_<yyyymmdd>_<processing stage code>_<additional dataset specific tags>
Details for the unique codes used for this dataset can be found in the following table.
Data Naming Element | Possible Code(s) | Descriptor |
---|---|---|
Standard Elements | ||
sensor category | gp | ground lidar |
instrument | v1 | Riegl vz400 |
product | wf | waveform |
processing stage | aa0 aa1 aa2 | raw instrument data (sensor coordinate system) registered data (project coordinate system) registered data with waveforms and photo RGB data |
data projection | f0 f1 f2 f3 | Time sequential Scan line/sample Cartesian Spherical |
Field | Description (units) | Format |
---|---|---|
supersite | AusCover calibration/validation site | Text |
collection | Code in naming convention –see instrument filenaming convention for details | Text |
instument | Code in naming convention –see instrument filenaming convention for details | Text |
product | Code in naming convention –see instrument filenaming convention for det ails | Text |
scene | Identifier for plot location given in longitude latitude combination | Text |
obs_time | Date and time of scan collection | Date/Time Stamp |
scan_azimuth | Azimuth of transect from plot centre to scan collection point in degrees from north (degrees) | Integer |
height_base | Height from base of scanner plate (cm) | Integer |
height_optical_centre | Height optical centre of scanner plate (cm) | Integer |
battery_on | Yes/no categorical field whether battery is on scanner, as this affe cts height measurements | Text |
reflect_distance_n | Distance to reflector on north transect, if exists (m) | Float |
reflect_size | Reflector diameter (mm) | Integer |
project_name | Project root name as recorded in scanner | Text |
obs_key | Uniqe identifier for site visit for data management purposes | Text |
id | Id for data management purposes | Integer |
reflect_found | Number of reflectors scan found | Integer |
tilt_angle | Tilt angle of scanner (0 for ??, ??) (degrees) | Integer |
no_reflect | Total number of reflectors deployed | |
scan_distance | Distance to scanner along transect running from plot centre to sc anner location (m) | Float |
reflect_distance_s | Distance to reflector on north transect, if exists (m) | Float |
reflect_distance_e | Distance to reflector on north transect, if exists (m) | Float |
reflect_distance_w | Distance to reflector on north transect, if exists (m) | Float |
reflect_distance_ne | Distance to reflector on north transect, if exists (m) | Float |
reflect_distance_se | Distance to reflector on north transect, if exists (m) | Float |
reflect_distance_sw | Distance to reflector on north transect, if exists (m) | Float |
reflect_distance_nw | Distance to reflector on north transect, if exists (m) | Float |
live_basal_area | Basal area estimate obtained via basal area sweep for live trees only (km/m^2) | Float |
total_basal_area | Basal area estimate obtained via basal area sweep for live trees only (kg/m^2) | Float |
Date | Detail |
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2013-09-13 | Metadata creation date |