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Remote Sensing and Smart Forestry II

A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292). This special issue belongs to the section "Forest Remote Sensing".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 January 2025 | Viewed by 9039

Special Issue Editors


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Computer Science and Technology, College of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing 210037, China
Interests: artificial intelligence; image processing; remote sensing classification
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College of Forestry, Central South University of Forestry & Technology, Changsha 410004, China
Interests: quantitative remote sensing in forestry; application of LiDAR in forestry; digital forest resource monitoring
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School of Information Science and Technology, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing 100083, China
Interests: smart forestry; smart landscape; information processing for remote sensing; software engineering
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Research Institute of Forestry Resource Information Techniques, Chinese Academy of Forestry, Beijing 100091, China
Interests: artificial intelligence; visualization simulation and virtual reality for forestry
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Special Issue entitled “Remote Sensing and Smart Forestry II” welcomes papers dealing with smart forestry construction and presents the scientific research achievements of remote sensing applications in the field of forestry in a concentrated way. 

Forests are the basis of human survival and development, and rapid and accurate acquisition of forest change information is of great significance for the sustainable development of ecological environment. Remote sensing plays a big role in studying and providing management decision support mainly including: forest resources survey, forest fire monitoring, forest pests and diseases monitoring, and forest resources dynamic monitoring.

The vertical structure of forest ecosystem and the rough terrain under the forest canopy are very complex, which presents a great challenge to the existing remote sensing monitoring technology. The improvement of spatial resolution and spectral resolution of remote sensing technology, as well as the development of radar remote sensing, aerial remote sensing and UAV remote sensing, which provide rich information sources for forestry remote sensing and broaden the applications of forestry remote sensing.

Special attention will be paid to the application of remote sensing-based smart forests, and this Special Issue aims to do just that. The papers will be reviewed and selected by the academic committee and recommended for publication in Remote Sensing. We kindly invite experts and scholars in related fields to contribute novel and original research to enrich our research community.

Prof. Dr. Weipeng Jing
Prof. Dr. Qiaolin Ye
Prof. Dr. Hua Sun
Dr. Houbing Song
Prof. Dr. Fu Xu
Prof. Dr. Huaiqing Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • remote sensing
  • smart forestry
  • intelligent forestry
  • forestry technology
  • virtual reality
  • artificial intelligence
  • image processing
  • remote sensing classification

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

34 pages, 17617 KiB  
Article
Integration of a Mobile Laser Scanning System with a Forest Harvester for Accurate Localization and Tree Stem Measurements
by Tamás Faitli, Eric Hyyppä, Heikki Hyyti, Teemu Hakala, Harri Kaartinen, Antero Kukko, Jesse Muhojoki and Juha Hyyppä
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(17), 3292; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16173292 - 4 Sep 2024
Viewed by 1176
Abstract
Automating forest machines to optimize the forest value chain requires the ability to map the surroundings of the machine and to conduct accurate measurements of nearby trees. In the near-to-medium term, integrating a forest harvester with a mobile laser scanner system may have [...] Read more.
Automating forest machines to optimize the forest value chain requires the ability to map the surroundings of the machine and to conduct accurate measurements of nearby trees. In the near-to-medium term, integrating a forest harvester with a mobile laser scanner system may have multiple applications, including real-time assistance of the harvester operator using laser-scanner-derived tree measurements and the collection of vast amounts of training data for large-scale airborne laser scanning-based surveys at the individual tree level. In this work, we present a comprehensive processing flow for a mobile laser scanning (MLS) system mounted on a forest harvester starting from the localization of the harvester under the forest canopy followed by accurate and automatic estimation of tree attributes, such as diameter at breast height (DBH) and stem curve. To evaluate our processing flow, we recorded and processed MLS data from a commercial thinning operation on three test strips with a total driven length ranging from 270 to 447 m in a managed Finnish spruce forest stand containing a total of 658 reference trees within a distance of 15 m from the harvester trajectory. Localization reference was obtained by a robotic total station, while reference tree attributes were derived using a high-quality handheld laser scanning system. As some applications of harvester-based MLS require real-time capabilities while others do not, we investigated the positioning accuracy both for real-time localization of the harvester and after the optimization of the full trajectory. In the real-time positioning mode, the absolute localization error was on average 2.44 m, while the corresponding error after the full optimization was 0.21 m. Applying our automatic stem diameter estimation algorithm for the constructed point clouds, we measured DBH and stem curve with a root-mean-square error (RMSE) of 3.2 cm and 3.6 cm, respectively, while detecting approximately 90% of the reference trees with DBH>20 cm that were located within 15 m from the harvester trajectory. To achieve these results, we demonstrated a distance-adjusted bias correction method mitigating diameter estimation errors caused by the high beam divergence of the laser scanner used. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing and Smart Forestry II)
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24 pages, 7594 KiB  
Article
A Novel Point Cloud Adaptive Filtering Algorithm for LiDAR SLAM in Forest Environments Based on Guidance Information
by Shuhang Yang, Yanqiu Xing, Dejun Wang and Hangyu Deng
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(15), 2714; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16152714 - 24 Jul 2024
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 938
Abstract
To address the issue of accuracy in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for forested areas, a novel point cloud adaptive filtering algorithm is proposed in the paper, based on point cloud data obtained by backpack Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). The algorithm employs [...] Read more.
To address the issue of accuracy in Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) for forested areas, a novel point cloud adaptive filtering algorithm is proposed in the paper, based on point cloud data obtained by backpack Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). The algorithm employs a K-D tree to construct the spatial position information of the 3D point cloud, deriving a linear model that is the guidance information based on both the original and filtered point cloud data. The parameters of the linear model are determined by minimizing the cost function using an optimization strategy, and a guidance point cloud filter is subsequently constructed based on these parameters. The results demonstrate that, comparing the diameter at breast height (DBH) and tree height before and after filtering with the measured true values, the accuracy of SLAM mapping is significantly improved after filtering. The Mean Absolute Error (MAE) of DBH before and after filtering are 2.20 cm and 1.16 cm; the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) values are 4.78 cm and 1.40 cm; and the relative RMSE values are 29.30% and 8.59%. For tree height, the MAE before and after filtering are 0.76 m and 0.40 m; the RMSE values are 1.01 m and 0.50 m; the relative RMSE values are 7.33% and 3.65%. The experimental results validate that the proposed adaptive point cloud filtering method based on guided information is an effective point cloud preprocessing method for enhancing the accuracy of SLAM mapping in forested areas. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing and Smart Forestry II)
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24 pages, 15502 KiB  
Article
Ecological Adaptation and Sustainable Cultivation of Citrus reticulata by Applying Mixed Design Principles under Changing Climate in China
by Xuanhan Yang, Shan Wang, Dangui Lu, Yakui Shao, Zhongke Feng and Zhichao Wang
Remote Sens. 2024, 16(13), 2338; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16132338 - 26 Jun 2024
Viewed by 1188
Abstract
Climate change is heavily altering plant distributions, posing significant challenges to conventional agricultural practices and ecological balance. Meanwhile, mixed species planting emerges as a potent strategy to enhance agricultural resilience, counteract climate change, preserve ecological balance, and provide a solution to economic instability. [...] Read more.
Climate change is heavily altering plant distributions, posing significant challenges to conventional agricultural practices and ecological balance. Meanwhile, mixed species planting emerges as a potent strategy to enhance agricultural resilience, counteract climate change, preserve ecological balance, and provide a solution to economic instability. The MaxEnt model was used to predict the suitable area of Citrus reticulata under five climate scenarios and to explore affecting environmental factors. Litchi chinensis, Punica granatum, and Lycium chinense were selected as mixed species to analyze the spatial distribution and centroid migration trend of potentially suitable areas. The research results show the following: (1) The primary environmental factors impacting C. reticulata distribution are annual precipitation (1000–4000 mm), precipitation of driest quarter over 100 mm, and mean temperature of coldest quarter (12–28 °C). Crucially, the mixed species exhibited similar environmental sensitivities, indicating mutual mixing suitability. (2) Currently, the C. reticulata suitable area is of 240.21 × 104 km2, primarily in South, East, Central, and Southwest China, with potential for expansion to 265.41 × 104 km2 under the 2090s SSP1-2.6 scenario. (3) The geometric center of the moderately-to-highly suitable areas for C. reticulata is located in Hunan Province. Future scenarios show the C. reticulata’s centroid migrating northwest, with distances of less than 110 km. Mixed planting trends toward higher latitudes, fluctuating from 6 km to 210 km. (4) Mixed planting area planning: C. reticulata and L. chinensis are suitable for mixed planting in South China. C. reticulata and P. granatum, C. reticulata and L. chinense are suitable for mixed planting in most areas of Central, East, Southwest, and South China. This research presents a new perspective on using mixed design principles for ecological adaptation and the sustainable mixed planting of C. reticulata, in response to China’s changing climate. This approach is expected to help the economic fruit tree industry enhance ecological resilience and economic stability in the face of future climate change challenges. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing and Smart Forestry II)
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19 pages, 6411 KiB  
Article
Multi-Label Remote Sensing Image Land Cover Classification Based on a Multi-Dimensional Attention Mechanism
by Haihui You, Juntao Gu and Weipeng Jing
Remote Sens. 2023, 15(20), 4979; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15204979 - 16 Oct 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1763
Abstract
For the multi-label classification task of remote sensing images (RSIs), it is difficult to accurately extract feature information from complex land covers, and it is easy to generate redundant features by ordinary convolution extraction features. This paper proposes a multi-label classification model for [...] Read more.
For the multi-label classification task of remote sensing images (RSIs), it is difficult to accurately extract feature information from complex land covers, and it is easy to generate redundant features by ordinary convolution extraction features. This paper proposes a multi-label classification model for multi-source RSIs that combines dense convolution and an attention mechanism. This method adds fusion channel attention and a spatial attention mechanism to each dense block module of the DenseNet, and the sigmoid activation function replaces the softmax activation function in multi-label classification. The improved model retains the main features of RSIs to the greatest extent and enhances the feature extraction of the images. The model can integrate local features, capture global dependencies, and aggregate contextual information to improve the multi-label land cover classification accuracy of RSIs. We conducted comparative experiments on the SEN12-MS and UC-Merced land cover dataset and analyzed the evaluation indicators. The experimental results show that this method effectively improves the multi-label classification accuracy of RSIs. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing and Smart Forestry II)
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19 pages, 7089 KiB  
Article
Retrieving Sub-Canopy Terrain from ICESat-2 Data Based on the RNR-DCM Filtering and Erroneous Ground Photons Correction Approach
by Yang Wu, Rong Zhao, Qing Hu, Yujia Zhang and Kun Zhang
Remote Sens. 2023, 15(15), 3904; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15153904 - 7 Aug 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1226
Abstract
Currently, the new space-based laser altimetry mission, Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), is widely used to obtain terrain information. Photon cloud filtering is a crucial step toward retrieving sub-canopy terrain. However, an unsuccessful photon cloud filtering performance weakens the retrieval of [...] Read more.
Currently, the new space-based laser altimetry mission, Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2), is widely used to obtain terrain information. Photon cloud filtering is a crucial step toward retrieving sub-canopy terrain. However, an unsuccessful photon cloud filtering performance weakens the retrieval of sub-canopy terrain. In addition, sub-canopy terrain retrieval would not be accurate in densely forested areas due to existing sparse ground photons. This paper proposes a photon cloud filtering method and a ground photon extraction method to accurately retrieve sub-canopy terrain from ICESat-2 data. First, signal photon cloud data were derived from ICESat-2 data using the proposed photon cloud filtering method. Second, ground photons were extracted based on a specific percentile range of elevation. Third, erroneous ground photons were identified and corrected to obtain accurate sub-canopy terrain results, assuming that the terrain in the local area with accurate ground photons was continuous and therefore could be fitted appropriately through a straight line. Then, the signal photon cloud data obtained by the proposed method were compared with the reference signal photon cloud data. The results demonstrate that the overall accuracy of the signal photon identification achieved by the proposed filtering method exceeded 96.1% in the study areas. The sub-canopy terrain retrieved by the proposed sub-canopy terrain retrieval method was compared with the airborne LiDAR terrain measurements. The root-mean-squared error (RMSE) values in the two study areas were 1.28 m and 1.19 m, while the corresponding R2 (coefficient of determination) values were 0.999 and 0.999, respectively. We also identified and corrected erroneous ground photons with an RMSE lower than 2.079 m in densely forested areas. Therefore, the results of this study can be used to improve the accuracy of sub-canopy terrain retrieval, thus pioneering the application of ICESat-2 data, such as the generation of global sub-canopy terrain products. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing and Smart Forestry II)
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19 pages, 5254 KiB  
Article
Weakly Supervised Forest Fire Segmentation in UAV Imagery Based on Foreground-Aware Pooling and Context-Aware Loss
by Junling Wang, Yupeng Wang, Liping Liu, Hengfu Yin, Ning Ye and Can Xu
Remote Sens. 2023, 15(14), 3606; https://doi.org/10.3390/rs15143606 - 19 Jul 2023
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 1455
Abstract
In recent years, tragedies caused by forest fires have been frequently reported. Forest fires not only result in significant economic losses but also cause environmental damage. The utilization of computer vision techniques and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for forest fire monitoring has become [...] Read more.
In recent years, tragedies caused by forest fires have been frequently reported. Forest fires not only result in significant economic losses but also cause environmental damage. The utilization of computer vision techniques and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for forest fire monitoring has become a primary approach to accurately locate and extinguish fires during their early stages. However, traditional computer-based methods for UAV forest fire image segmentation require a large amount of pixel-level labeled data to train the networks, which can be time-consuming and costly to acquire. To address this challenge, we propose a novel weakly supervised approach for semantic segmentation of fire images in this study. Our method utilizes self-supervised attention foreground-aware pooling (SAP) and context-aware loss (CAL) to generate high-quality pseudo-labels, serving as substitutes for manual annotation. SAP collaborates with bounding box and class activation mapping (CAM) to generate a background attention map, which aids in the generation of accurate pseudo-labels. CAL further improves the quality of the pseudo-labels by incorporating contextual information related to the target objects, effectively reducing environmental noise. We conducted experiments on two publicly available UAV forest fire datasets: the Corsican dataset and the Flame dataset. Our proposed method achieved impressive results, with IoU values of 81.23% and 76.43% for the Corsican dataset and the Flame dataset, respectively. These results significantly outperform the latest weakly supervised semantic segmentation (WSSS) networks on forest fire datasets. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Remote Sensing and Smart Forestry II)
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