LIDAR Data and Urban Tree Canopy Management

LIDAR data provides valuable information about urban tree canopy management and can be used to analyse the dynamics of urban forests in a variety of different applications. A lidar instrument measures the distance to the ground by sending laser pulses in the air and collecting the light scattered back by the objects it hits, such as trees, buildings, or landforms. Lidar can measure the height, width and volume of assets identified.

As urban populations grow, urban tree canopy coverage decreases. Causing problems with urban heat?increase, shade amenity and parkland loss and general population health.

It’s essential to have accurate data about your trees—particularly around buildings, where they can cause expensive damage during storm events. Data solutions come from various methods, including LIDAR (Light Detection And Ranging). But what is LIDAR? How does it help cities monitor their growing forests? Read on to look at how you can use spatial analysis to monitor your city’s urban tree canopy.

LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is an active remote sensing method where a sensor emits and captures short wavelengths of light to measure objects in high resolution. Urban areas are complex environments, and the ability of LiDAR to measure in three dimensions makes it more accurate in measuring the proportion and spatial distribution of tree canopies across these areas. LIDAR data sets are not limited to the tree canopy and vegetation of urban areas but can also provide high accuracy models for building footprints, digital terrain, and flood modelling.

Climate change awareness is rising, and residents are demanding more ethical, sustainable community living. This method is vital for cities because it can provide?an analysis of where your city areas have?tree canopy coverage, where there is a need for trees and where there is available space to remedy this. Remote sensing and LIDAR-derived data solutions can help identify the issues and provide a toolset for better management of these areas so that every city resident has an?opportunity to benefit from nature’s beauty and?environmental advantages. The data gathered through lidar mapping also allows us to look at trends in specific regions over time, helping us track gains and losses in urban tree canopy coverage over multiple years.

The image below was taken from a project Anditi completed for the City of Newcastle, to assess canopy growth over a 10 year time period. (dark green = 2018, light green = 2014, mustard = 2011, light orange = 2008)

For further information on spatial data analysis and LIDAR-derived products, contact [email protected].