Handheld LiDAR Revolutionizes Forestry Survey: From Point Clouds to Precise Fruit Tree Data with Digitalization

When you think of forestry surveys, what comes to mind? Is it carrying a measuring tape and a height meter while trudging through dense forests? Or standing beneath a tree, looking up, trying to estimate its height, but always missing the mark by a few centimeters? These traditional methods are not only labor-intensive but also prone to inaccuracies. Today, we bring you a practical share from our tech team, showcasing how 3D scanning technology combined with AI algorithms is making forestry surveys “easy and accurate"!

Traditional forestry surveys often require surveyors to carry measuring tapes and height meters, navigating dense forests and remote mountains. This process is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and prone to human error. Key pain points in the forestry survey industry include:

• Traditional manual measurements (tape measure/height meter) are time-consuming, labor-intensive, and costly.
• Accuracy is affected by terrain, branch coverage, and human error, making it hard to control errors.
• Only basic linear data can be collected, and the data dimension is limited, which doesn't meet the needs of precise management.
• Data lacks uniform standards, and it's non-traceable. Large-scale surveys can only rely on sampling, resulting in unrepresentative data.

With the development of LiDAR technology, 3D point cloud technology has brought a digital revolution to forestry surveys. Handheld LiDAR technology, with its efficient and flexible data collection capabilities, takes forestry surveys from the “manual and crude" approach into the “intelligent and precise" era. It performs non-contact scanning, perfectly adapting to complex terrain in orchards, protecting fruit trees from damage and eliminating safety risks from climbing. With a simple scan, the entire forest area's 3D structure is captured.

The core advantage of handheld LiDAR is its ability to digitally capture the real-world forest landscape and, through specialized software, precisely extract and analyze individual tree information. The entire process is simple and efficient, and even beginners can quickly master it. The four steps to complete the entire data collection and output process are:

Let’s take a look at this image:

This is 3D point cloud data collected using a handheld laser scanner. The point cloud not only restores the real color of the forest area (such as landscape trees or forest stands) but also, with its integrated high-precision RTK module, allows for real-time output of absolute coordinate point clouds without the need for complex control points. Surveyors can simply walk along a planned path and collect rich 3D spatial coordinate information. Whether it’s dense tree crowns or the tree trunks at the bottom, everything is “digitized" with ease.

When trees grow close together with overlapping branches, it’s difficult to distinguish between them using traditional methods. However, in point cloud software, everything becomes clear. Thanks to powerful spatial clustering algorithms, the software can precisely segment the trees, assigning different color labels to each individual tree. What was once a continuous forest is now clearly separated, and forestry surveys no longer just “see the forest," but can now precisely “see the trees."

Once single tree segmentation is complete, the real work begins — extracting tree measurement parameters automatically. The specialized calculation and analysis module offers a rich toolbox: adding, merging, deleting trees, removing supporting rods, crown analysis, and even calculating stock volume and carbon storage.

By clicking “Attribute Calculation," the system automatically generates a detailed tree report. Here, every tree has its own unique ID, and the following data is output:

• Spatial location (X, Y, Z)
• Tree height (m)
• DBH (Diameter at Breast Height) (cm)
• Crown diameter (m)
• Ground diameter (m)
• Branch height (m)

The data is accurate and complete, all done with just one click!

With the data in hand, maps are essential. Whether for project reporting or forest management, an intuitive distribution map is a must-have. The software includes a powerful “Distribution Map" generation tool. You can accurately filter trees based on real-world requirements by setting property thresholds (e.g., only show trees taller than 5 meters, or those with a DBH greater than a certain value).

From manual measurement to LiDAR digital surveys, this isn’t just an upgrade in tools but a transformation in the approach to forestry surveys. Why are more and more people turning to handheld LiDAR for forestry surveys? The core lies in the four irreplaceable advantages:

• Non-contact scanning: Adaptable to complex orchard terrain, without damaging fruit trees or risking safety from climbing.
• High-precision restoration of 3D tree structure: Tree height, DBH, and crown diameter errors are significantly lower than with traditional tools.
• Efficiency boost: Integration of fieldwork and office work, with on-site data verification.
• Traceable and easy-to-integrate data: Digital point cloud data can automatically extract multi-dimensional tree parameters, supporting fine management of orchards.

From “walking through the woods" to “looking at the computer," from “estimating" to “precise calculation," handheld LiDAR has completely solved many of the challenges of traditional fruit tree surveys. It has revolutionized forestry surveys from a “manual and rough" approach into a “one-click scan, intelligent analysis" model.