Abstract

Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) offers the ability to record forest canopy information for large areas, quickly, remotely and at high accuracy. ALS technology relies on a laser range finder and a scanning mechanism to measure the elevation at points within a swath beneath the flight-path of an aircraft. This remote sensing technique supplies geo-referenced digital elevation data at a high sampling density and with high accuracy. As a non-intrusive technique of acquiring information on forest canopy characteristics, ALS provides an ideal sampling method for areas of interest that are large or inaccessible. This paper focuses on information that can be acquired about forests at a landscape scale using a mapping ALS system (the Airborne Laser Terrain Mapper). We present examples of digital data products from a test site of deciduous woodland in Cambridgeshire, UK, and provide validation against field recorded measures. This represents a first step towards habitat quantification for woodland birds by remote means In: Avian Landscape Ecology: Pure and Applied Issues in the Large-scale Ecology of Birds by D. Chamberlain (Editor), A. Wilson (Editor)