Aerial photogrammetric techniques often do not create the necessary 3D models to accurately assess forest stands, according to A. Koto and others at the Chiba University in Japan. LiDAR-derived surface models can be used to derive the 3D tree crown structure. This LiDAR-derived DSM could be used with conventional photogrammetric techniques to rectify aerial photos and produce true orthophotos for each image.
When combined with the spectral information from the aerial photos this approach can provide much better forestry-specific information. Once again the power of data fusion is seen as the better solution.
