Public defence in geoinformatics, M.Sc. (Agr.&For.) Daniel Schraik

We can now bridge the gap between extremely detailed 3D point clouds of forests and satellite images with pixel sizes of tens of meters. The connection between these two very different scales lies in the physics of how trees interact with sunlight.

Using data from a wide range of forest sites in Finland, Estonia, and the Czech Republic, covering many different tree species, this dissertation introduces a new way to directly and non-destructively measure forest structure using lidar point clouds. From individual leaves and needles, shoots, up to tree crowns and entire forest stands, at each scale lidar was assessed for its potential to measure the amount and spatial distribution of leaves and needles using state-of-the-art computational techniques.

This new way of quantifying forest canopy structure paves the way for new applications for the use of point clouds in remote sensing. It provides a link to photon transport in canopies by measuring forest structure in ways that improves our understanding of the physics of forest remote sensing, which helps us improve operational forest monitoring.

Video summary of the dissertation: https://youtu.be/BuYGGq_A8K0

Opponent: Professor Kim Calders, Ghent University, Belgium 

Custos: Professor Miina Rautiainen, Aalto University School of Engineering, Department of Built Environment

Contact information of the doctoral student: Daniel Schraik, [email protected]

The public defence will be organised on campus (auditorium M1, Otakaari 1).

The thesis is publicly displayed 10 days before the defence in the publication archive Aaltodoc of Aalto University. 

Electronic thesis