Geography 358: LiDAR: Lab 7

Introduction
The purpose of this lab was utilize land cover from optical imagery to pinpoint tree species spatial distribution, use empirical models to extract various vegetation metrics from a tree species in a given study area, and create a recommendation to the carbon sink potential of a forest.

Methods

Part 1: Canopy Height Model

This section of this lab was to generate a canopy surface and ground model from a LAS dataset for Eau Claire County. A canopy surface model was created using vegetation points filtered by first returns only using a 3 foot cell size. Then a DTM was for the ground surface. Once these models were created in LP360, they were brought into ArcMap. Using model-builder a model was created that subtracted the vegetation height model from the ground model to create a new model from the subtracted values named EC_veg_CH. This new model was changed to a 32-bit signed integer raster named EC_veg_CH_c. This was done so that an attribute table could be created for model.

Part 2: Above Ground Biomass Estimation

The next section of the lab the above ground biomass (AGB) for five different tree species was created. To complete this task, the EC_veg_CH_c and the wiscland2_L3 were brought into ArcMap. The wiscland2_L3 shapefile was reclassified into five different classes (hardwood, red maple, pine, oak, and aspen). Then using this newly reclassified image and using the chart and equation below (figure. 1) a new model was created to calculate each of the of the aforementioned species (figure 2).

Figure 1. Values and equation used to create model in ArcMap

Figure 2. Model used in ArcMap to calculate AGB

Part 3: Calculation of Additional Metrics

For the final step of the lab we asked to calculate stem, branch, and foliage biomass for each of the each of the tree species using the equation below. Inputs for the eqations was found using a set of articles provided by the Dr. Wilson.