USE OF TREE HEIGHT FOR MANGROVE SPECIES CLASSIFICATION

Abstract. Mangrove forests play an important role in the balance of biodiversity. However, they are threatened by agriculture, aquaculture, urbanization and global warming. That’s why it is imperative to monitor this ecosystem and understand how it evolves in the face of these threats in order to better preserve it. The traditional methods are invasive and time consuming. Besides, it is often difficult to get into mangroves because of the particular structure of some species, so measurements cannot be taken in those areas. That’s why it is very interesting to use aerial data provided by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) photos or airborne laser scanning systems (ALS). Moreover, some representative elements of mangroves are only a few tens of centimeters high. This is the case of pneumatophores. Traditional measurements would be much too long. In this case, it is interesting to use terrestrial laser scanning systems (TLS) to make measurements and to follow them. A research project began in 2021 to try to understand how urban mangroves develop in semi-arid regions, using remote sensing techniques (photogrammetry, airborne and terrestrial laser scanning). The purpose of this paper is first to present the project and the issues of monitoring mangrove forests. Then, it proposes a state of the art of the methodologies used to record mangrove. Finally, it presents the different acquisitions made as well as the first results of species classification based on photogrammetric point cloud processing. The assessment based on ground truth shows already promising results.