Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Trees with RIEGL Terrestrial LiDAR

Unlocking the Secrets of Ancient Trees with RIEGL Terrestrial LiDAR

Researchers from University College London (UCL), the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, and the National Centre for Earth Observation (NCEO) are collaborating with RIEGL UK to gain new insights into some of the UK’s rare and exceptional ancient oak trees using the RIEGL VZ-400i terrestrial laser scanner. The SCATTER project (Scanning Ancient Trees with Terrestrial LiDAR) employs a novel LiDAR based approach to assess ancient oaks, raise awareness about their legal status, and provide new insights for their conservation.

Leading the efforts to study and conserve these natural icons are Professor Mat Disney and Dr. Cecilia Chavana-Bryant at UCL, along with Dr. Phil Wilkes at Kew. Funded by the Woodland Trust, they have used LiDAR to capture the unique structural complexity of 40 ancient oaks, offering insights into their growth patterns and ecological importance. LiDAR is a new tool for this kind of work and allows the creation of extremely detailed 3D models of these individual and vulnerable trees. The SCATTER team is also collaborating with the UK’s Ancient Tree Forum to explore the potential of LiDAR as a practical tool for arboricultural assessments of ancient trees.

The SCATTER project provides new insights into ancient oaks by enabling researchers to quantify the extreme shapes these trees can take. These structural extremes reveal information about the environment and life history of each tree. Understanding how these trees have survived is crucial, as they are particularly vulnerable and lack substantial legal protection. The Woodland Trust in the UK is campaigning to grant these trees a similar status to buildings, which enjoy much greater legal protection despite often being much younger. Part of this effort involves identifying potential ancient trees of the future and helping to protect them for generations to come.

Both UCL and RBG Kew teams have deployed RIEGL LiDAR over several years as part of their ongoing research to document and understand the behavior of trees at both individual and forest levels. Other results from accurate 3D mapping of trees and forests have revealed much more information about above-ground biomass, such as the size of our trees and, by extension, the amount of carbon they contain. Utilizing the features of RIEGL laser scanners, including full waveform and multitarget responses, has enabled the creation of more accurate 3D models of the trees, enhancing our understanding of these aspects. The teams have deployed RIEGL VZ-400 and VZ-400i terrestrial laser scanners throughout their many years of research, with the SCATTER project specifically utilizing the VZ-400i.

The UCL team began using terrestrial LiDAR for this type of work over a decade ago and have pioneered the use of TLS in estimating forest structure and function for some of the world’s largest and oldest trees. The tools and workflows they and their colleagues have developed using their RIEGL equipment have been adopted by numerous groups worldwide interested in measuring forests.

The SCATTER 3D digital models provide an open-access legacy resource to help us study and safeguard these trees for generations to come. The original LiDAR data can be accessed on ZENODO: https://zenodo.org/records/11658042 and the 3D models are available on Sketchfab https://sketchfab.com/SCATTER.project

About RIEGL:

RIEGL is an international leading provider of cutting-edge technology in airborne, mobile, terrestrial, industrial and unmanned laser scanning solutions for applications in surveying.

RIEGL has been producing LiDAR systems commercially for over 40 years and focuses on pulsed time-of-flight laser radar technology in multiple wavelengths.

RIEGL’s core Smart-Waveform technologies provide pure digital LiDAR signal processing, unique methodologies for resolving range ambiguities, multiple targets per laser shots, optimum distribution of measurements, calibrated amplitudes and reflectance estimates, as well as the seamless integration and calibration of systems.

RIEGL’s Ultimate LiDAR^TM 3D scanners offer a wide array of performance characteristics and serve as a platform for continuing Innovation in 3D for the LiDAR industry.

From the first inquiry, to purchase and integration of the system, as well as training and support, RIEGL maintains an outstanding history of reliability and support to their customers.

Worldwide sales, training, support and services are delivered from RIEGL’s headquarters in Austria and in the USA; main offices in Japan, China, Hong Kong, Australia, Canada, UK, Germany, and Chile; and a worldwide network of representatives.