EMU: acquisition of LiDAR technology integrated with a data management system for monitoring, measurement and data access in the Forestry Experimental Stations of USP and Forest Foundation

• Grant number: 22/11591-9
• Support Opportunities: Research Infrastructure Program - Technology and Innovation
• Start date: June 01, 2023
• End date: May 31, 2030
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Forestry Resources and Forestry Engineering - Forest Management
• Principal Investigator: Silvio Frosini de Barros Ferraz
• Grantee: Silvio Frosini de Barros Ferraz
• Host Institution: Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz (ESALQ). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Piracicaba , SP, Brazil
• Associated researchers: Mario Tommasiello Filho ; Matheus Pinheiro Ferreira ; Miguel Luiz Menezes Freitas ; Pedro Henrique Santin Brancalion

Abstract

The measurement of forest experiments with LiDAR technologies at USP's and Fundação Florestal research stations requires the acquisition of equipment mounted on a drone, attachable to backpacks, quads or tractors, to create a modern technological structure that encourages entrepreneurship in undergraduate and graduate students. graduate students, as well as researchers and other professionals in the agricultural sector. The use of innovative LiDAR technologies stimulates new solution providers in the areas of non-destructive measurement of forest parameters, such as diameters at different heights, stem and crown counts, measures of leaf cover density, trunk taper, branch structure, and volume of wood, biomass and carbon. This innovative infrastructure will support research currently being conducted by USP, IPEF and Fundação Florestal in the municipalities of Itatinga, Anhembi, Rio Claro and several other locations where many IPEF member companies carry out research. These activities often involve measuring the various physical attributes of trees in hundreds of experimental plots conducted by researchers in the areas of management, improvement, nutrition and forest protection. Each LiDAR scan generates information many times more than conventional methods. LiDAR scanning generates dense point clouds that allow, in addition to measurements taken today by conventional methods, the extraction of metrics strongly correlated with important forest attributes, such as the detailed distribution of plant cover heights, canopy density, horizontal occupation of individuals by area, and vertical occupation of the different layers of vegetation above the ground. This large volume of information will be organized in systems specially designed to store, process and provide access to the world wide web for different users, aiming at maximum transparency and reproducibility of science. Disruptive procedures, modern LiDAR measurement techniques and the creation of open data distribution systems are the main elements of this innovative proposal to guarantee accessibility and reproducibility to science. (AU)