METHODS FOR THE UPDATE AND VERIFICATION OF FOREST SURFACE MODEL

Abstract. The digital terrain model (DTM) represents the bare ground earth's surface without any objects like vegetation and buildings. In contrast to a DTM, Digital surface model (DSM) represents the earth's surface including all objects on it. The DTM mostly does not change as frequently as the DSM. The most important changes of the DSM are in the forest areas due to the vegetation growth. Using the LIDAR technology the canopy height model (CHM) is obtained by subtracting the DTM and the corresponding DSM. The DSM is calculated from the first pulse echo and DTM from the last pulse echo data. The main problem of the DSM and CHM data using is the actuality of the airborne laser scanning.

This paper describes the method of calculating the CHM and DSM data changes using the relations between the canopy height and age of trees. To get a present basic reference data model of the canopy height, the photogrammetric and trigonometric measurements of single trees were used. Comparing the heights of corresponding trees on the aerial photographs of various ages, the statistical sets of the tree growth rate were obtained. These statistical data and LIDAR data were compared with the growth curve of the spruce forest, which corresponds to a similar natural environment (soil quality, climate characteristics, geographic location, etc.) to get the updating characteristics.