LiDAR Technology in Forest Ecosystems: Advances and Applications in Forest Management, Monitoring and Modelling
A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Remote Sensing".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 January 2026 | Viewed by 6
Special Issue Editor
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
LiDAR technology has transformed forest inventory by enabling highly precise measurements of key biometric parameters. This advancement has facilitated the accurate quantification of resources, the comprehensive assessment of conditions, and the development of tailored strategies for sustainable management and monitoring in forests. These technological innovations have improved both the accuracy and efficiency of estimating forest attributes and biodiversity indicators across diverse habitat types and spatial scales. Despite these achievements, a major challenge remains in scaling from detailed plot-level measurements to large-area and regional forest assessments. Overcoming this requires statistically robust sampling designs and reliable estimation methods, carefully calibrated with ground-based surveys, which ensure confidence and consistency in estimating forest attributes at multiple spatial scales.
This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances in LiDAR methodologies that support structural and biodiversity assessment in forests, with a particular focus on bridging the gap between plot-level data and large-area monitoring. This aligns with the journal’s scope by emphasizing innovative remote sensing technologies and their applications in environmental monitoring and sustainable resource management. This issue seeks to foster interdisciplinary research that integrates LiDAR data with ground surveys and modeling approaches, thereby advancing forest inventory techniques that are both scientifically rigorous and operationally relevant.
We invite original research articles, comprehensive reviews, and case studies addressing the following themes:
- Innovative LiDAR methodologies for detailed forest structure and biodiversity assessment;
- The development and calibration of allometric and taper functions using LiDAR data;
- Statistically robust sampling designs and scaling techniques for large-area and regional forest inventories;
- The integration of LiDAR with ground-based surveys for improved forest attribute estimation;
- Applications of LiDAR in ecosystem monitoring and sustainable forest management.
Submissions that present novel algorithms, multi-sensor data fusion, machine learning approaches, and practical implementations in diverse forest ecosystems are particularly welcome.
Dr. Matteo Mura
Guest Editor
Manuscript Submission Information
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Keywords
- LiDAR
- airborne laser scanning
- forest inventory
- forest biometrics
- large area estimation
- forest management
- forest monitoring
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