Page 18 - Georgia Forestry - Issue2 - Spring 2018

Wildland Fire Fuels and Modeling
Each scan can be analyzed for forest structure and density, important for determining fire behavior. The research team is evaluating algorithms for extracting detailed stand features, including individual tree biomass, over- story leaf area distribution, fuel continuity and shrub cover. The result is a sophisticated fire model with detailed fuel characteristics that can be used to improve research and prescribed fire planning.
A next-generation fire behavior model used to simulate ignition patterns in different fuels. The simulated fuels in this model can be created using LiDAR scans of actual fuels and can be altered as needed.
Forestry
Tree heights and diameters have been estimated traditionally using standard equipment, but the only way to accurately determine volume and structure of a tree is to cut it down or apply allometry to airborne LiDAR data. Now, TLS captures precise volume measures of each tree in a forest stand through better characterization of tree structure, crown shape and demographics.
Knowledge of how trees grow as they age will help conservationists’ planning efforts in forests being converted from even-aged to multi- aged stands over time in conservation landscapes.
TALL TIMBERS
16 | GEORGIA FORESTRY