What is it about?

An early experiment of using RGB photography to estimate leaf area index in isolated trees and urban settings

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Why is it important?

Two challenges are considered: i) single tree leaf area measurements are challenging because optical methods are most performing on stand level; ii) urban materials can affect the light measurements from optical instruments. We showed that visible-band vegetation indices from a customer grade camera can extract the greenness and avoid the influence of urban surrounding

Perspectives

The photographic method can be used to assess leaf area index in isolated urban trees. More efforts will be required to validate the method in large isolated urban trees, where the influence of large branches in light measurements should be evaluated. At another level, the method can be replicated in images collected from UAV, which can overcome the limit of upward facing images.

Dr Francesco Chianucci
Forestry Research Centre, Italy

Read the Original

This page is a summary of: Estimation of leaf area index in isolated trees with digital photography and its application to urban forestry, Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, January 2015, Elsevier,
DOI: 10.1016/j.ufug.2015.04.001.
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