%0 Research article
%T Estimating species-specific diameter distributions and saw log recoveries of boreal forests from airborne laser scanning data and aerial photographs: a distribution-based approach
%A Peuhkurinen, Jussi
%A Maltamo, Matti
%A Malinen, Jukka
%D 2008
%J Silva Fennica
%V 42
%N 4
%R doi:10.14214/sf.237
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/237
%X The low-density airborne laser scanning (ALS) data based estimation  methods have been shown to produce accurate estimates of mean forest  characteristics and diameter distributions, according to several  studies. The used estimation methods have been based on the laser canopy  height distribution approach, where various laser pulse height  distribution -derived predictors are related to the stand  characteristics of interest. This approach requires very delicate  selection methods for selecting the suitable predictor variables. In  this study, we introduce a new nearest neighbor search method that  requires no complicated selection algorithm for choosing the predictor  variables and can be utilized in multipurpose situations. The proposed  search method is based on Minkowski distances between the distributions  extracted from low density ALS data and aerial photographs. Apart from  the introduction of a new search method, the aims of this study were: 1)  to produce accurate species-specific diameter distributions and 2) to  estimate factual saw log recovery, using the estimated height-diameter  distributions and a stem data bank. The results indicate that the  proposed method is suitable for producing species-specific diameter  distributions and volumes at the stand level. However, it is proposed,  that the utilization of more extensive and locally emphasized reference  data and auxiliary variables could yield more accurate saw log  recoveries.