A Research Coordination Network for Ecological Applications of Terrestrial Laser Scanning

Enhancing the development of terrestrial laser scanning for ecological applications is the objective of a Research Coordination Network (RCN) now funded by the US National Science Foundation. The activity has two primary goals: (1) development of a low-cost lidar scanner that will provide accurate estimates of above-ground forest biomass for carbon modeling and monitoring procedures; and (2) development of a range of new ecological applications for TLS, based on rapid forest structure measurements and 3-D reconstructions of forest plots and stands. The network, first constituted in 2015, presently includes 69 participants, including researchers, professors, postdocs, and students at 32 institutions from Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Finland, Netherlands, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. It is led by a Steering Committee of 15 researchers from 12 of these institutions. A primary activity of the TLSRCN is to facilitate communication of TLS developments and applications both within the group and to the broader scientific community at meetings and workshops. In 2015, RCN participants presented 27 papers and posters at international meetings and forums, including the Annual Conference of the Remote Sensing and Photogrammetry Society of the UK, SilviLaser 2015, and the Fall Meeting of the AGU. Within the group, bimonthly telecons allow the exchange of recent research developments and planning for group meetings and international conference presentations. Encouraging collaborative publications is also a focus of the RCN; 9 of 11 journal papers published in 2015 that reported TLS research by participants also combined authors from more than one research group participating in the network. The TLSRCN is supported by NSF Grant DBI-1455636 to Boston University, Alan Strahler Principal Investigator. Information for researchers interested in joining the network is available on the TLSRCN web site, tlsrcn.bu.edu. The image below shows a stand of Himalayan cedars at the Australian National Arboretum in Canberra. Acquired by the experimental Dual Wavelength Echidna Lidar, it is produced from the intensity information recorded from the 1556 nm laser (courtesy Michael Schaefer, CSIRO).