Estimating stand basal area from forest panoramas

Christopher Fastie of Middlebury College talks at the first Fine
International Conference on Gigapixel Imaging for Science, November
11-13 2010 at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, PA.

Common forest inventory technique involves making 360° visual scans
within forests and selecting a sample of trees by assessing the
horizontal angle subtended by their trunks. These samples allow quick
and accurate estimates of forest stand basal area. All of the
information required to complete such estimates can be obtained from
high-resolution panoramic photographs of forest interiors.The image-
based method has great precision and acceptable accuracy when tree
trunks are not obscured by other trees or shrubs, when stitching is
error free, and when adequate depth of field provides well focused
images. This technique may have application using panoramas taken for
other purposes, including historical photographs.

Contact: http://gigapixelscience.org or Mary Jo Daines at mknelly@andrew.cmu.edu

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