Forest Road Detection Using LiDAR Data and Hybrid Classification

[EN] Knowledge about forest road networks is essential for sustainable forest management and fire management. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of a new hierarchical-hybrid classification tool (HyClass) for mapping paved and unpaved forest roads with LiDAR data. Bareearth and low-lyin...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Buján Seoane, Sandra, Guerra Hernández, Juan, González Ferreiro, Eduardo Manuel, Miranda Barros, David
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2021
País:España
Institución:Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
Repositorio:BULERIA. Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de León
OAI Identifier:oai:buleria.unileon.es:10612/18654
Acceso en línea:https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/13/3/393
https://hdl.handle.net/10612/18654
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Ingeniería forestal
Forest network extraction
Object/pixel based classification
Random forest
Importance of variables
Quality measures
Sensitivity analysis
Descripción
Sumario:[EN] Knowledge about forest road networks is essential for sustainable forest management and fire management. The aim of this study was to assess the accuracy of a new hierarchical-hybrid classification tool (HyClass) for mapping paved and unpaved forest roads with LiDAR data. Bareearth and low-lying vegetation were also identified. For this purpose, a rural landscape (area 70 ha) in northwestern Spain was selected for study, and a road network map was extracted from the cadastral maps as the ground truth data. The HyClass tool is based on a decision tree which integrates segmentation processes at local scale with decision rules. The proposed approach yielded an overall accuracy (OA) of 96.5%, with a confidence interval (CI) of 94.0-97.6%, representing an improvement over pixel-based classification (OA = 87.0%, CI = 83.7-89.8%) using Random Forest (RF). In addition, with the HyClass tool, the classification precision varied significantly after reducing the original point density from 8.7 to 1 point/m2. The proposed method can provide accurate road mapping to support forest management as an alternative to pixel-based RF classification when the LiDAR point density is higher than 1 point/m2