Yearly, HOLZKURIER, the forestry journal of the Austrian Agricultural Publishing Home, selects an organization that gives distinctive providers and merchandise for the forestry trade because the “Forestry Options Supplier of the 12 months.” Following a particular proposal from the Institute of Forest Development and the Institute of Forest Engineering (BOKU, Vienna), the group from the Austrian “Holzkurier” offered the award for 2025 to RIEGL Laser Measurement Programs. The announcement and the article can be found right here:
https://www.holzkurier.com/rundholz/2024/12/der_digitale_baum.html
On your comfort and to give you extra insights into RIEGL’s efficiency in forestry purposes, we’ve got supplied the article and the data in English right here. Get pleasure from studying!
Digitizing the Forest
Laser-based information assortment is turning into more and more essential in forest monitoring and the digitalization of forest inventories. RIEGL has earned a superb fame within the forestry trade with its terrestrial, cellular, and airborne laser scanners and the related 3D software program options.
Increasing Laser Scanning Know-how in Forestry
“The acceptance of laser scanning expertise and its utility in forests can definitely be additional expanded. There isn’t any query that laser scanning can be utilized in forestry,” states Bernhard Groiss, Senior Technical Professional for Lidar Forestry Functions at RIEGL. Lidar, an acronym for Gentle Detection and Ranging, is a technique of measuring the gap between a sensor and a goal object utilizing pulsed lasers.
Laser Scanning Know-how – in Use for Many years
Knowledge generated with RIEGL laser scanners has been utilized in forestry for a few years. With the assistance of ALS (Airborne Laser Scanning) and ULS (UAV-based Laser Scanning), areas, tree species composition, tree heights and volumes or terrain constructions will be simply recognized. “Nonetheless, in terms of DBH (Diameter at Breast Top) distributions or very particular data on particular person bushes, there is no such thing as a getting round the usage of terrestrial laser scanners,” explains Dr. Christoph Gollob from the Institute of Forest Development on the College of Pure Sources and Life Sciences (BOKU) in Vienna. In observe, a mix of each applied sciences is usually used. In accordance with Groiss, the principle clients for RIEGL laser scanners within the forestry sector are analysis amenities and academic institutes in addition to surveying service suppliers.
Laser Gadgets as an alternative of Mirror Relascope
With the RIEGL VZ-600i, RIEGL has launched a terrestrial laser scanner onto the market that’s supreme to be used in forestry. The scanner is quick, exact and environment friendly and delivers extraordinarily correct measurement information for a variety of forestry-relevant parameters. Along with the Tyrolean software program firm Laserdata, RIEGL launched the RIEGL LIS TreeAnalyzer plugin in 2023. Together with the corporate’s personal RiSCAN PRO software program, digital twins will be generated in 3D high quality and information analyzed intimately.
Amongst different issues, the RIEGL workflow data the DBH (Diameter at Breast Top), the tree top, the variety of bushes on a particular space, the crown space, the person tree trunk and department segmentation in addition to the tree quantity. Inside 20 minutes, 0.5 ha will be fully surveyed.
“Our laser scanners virtually change the mirror relascope. The information is extra correct, reproducible and extra complete than with conventional sampling. On the similar time, the laser scanners are simpler to make use of than a couple of years in the past and will be operated with out particular prior information,” emphasizes Groiss. He provides: “Each single tree is recorded utilizing GNSS (World Navigation Satellite tv for pc System) information. I may acknowledge the undergrowth and the terrain from the big quantity of information captured, as I can distinguish between floor and non-ground factors.”
Present Stock
For particular person forestry operations, information assortment utilizing drones – along with common forestry planning – opens up many new prospects. For instance, new forest roads will be deliberate, and present paths and fords will be repeatedly checked for harm. Injury resembling floor or slope slides will be detected shortly. Knowledge acquisition utilizing laser scanners is especially efficient within the case of storm or beetle harm. Broken wooden areas and volumes will be exactly recorded by drone flights shortly after the occasion – typically even earlier than the affected space will be entered for security causes and assessed utilizing terrestrial strategies.
“The 1.6 kg (3.5 lbs) RIEGL miniVUX-3UAV lidar sensor will also be used, for instance, to find out nesting websites with pinpoint accuracy,” explains Groiss. Different potential purposes for RIEGL laser scanners embody the recording of lifeless wooden and the monitoring of biotope and habitat bushes.
Knowledge Acquisition Past the Forest
Outdoors the forest, RIEGL laser scanners are additionally used to measure park and concrete bushes. Their quantity and the quantity of carbon from the trunk to the branches can hardly be described with form numbers, however with laser expertise they will. It is usually potential, for instance, to find out which tree or department must be eliminated for visitors security causes. The Austrian Federal Railways (ÖBB), a long-standing RIEGL buyer, makes use of cellular laser scanners (MLS) mounted on trains. These detect throughout the journey whether or not bushes or biomass are endangering the railroad line and applicable measures should be taken. “Our MLS units present centimeter-accurate information at a pace of 100 km/h. In fact, these units will also be mounted on automobiles, boats or different autos,” explains Groiss.
RIEGL has been one of many world’s main producers of laser scanners for over 40 years. The globally lively firm attaches nice significance to the standard of its units and a excessive stage of vertical integration. “Our laser scanners are full of innovation, refined expertise and excessive efficiency. We even manufacture our circuit boards ourselves. Complete software program packages ship extremely correct and significant level clouds,” explains Groiss. The corporate has its personal analysis and improvement division in addition to a software program division that repeatedly develops the units.
The Gold Normal
“We’re very glad with the RIEGL scanners. The assist specifically – additionally for scientific questions and methodology improvement – is excellent, uncomplicated and distinctive,” emphasizes Gollob. The BOKU Institute has owned a RIEGL VZ-600i because the starting of 2024 and has beforehand used ALS information generated with RIEGL laser scanners and laser scanning methods. “For me, RIEGL is a expertise chief as a result of the merchandise are repeatedly developed in shut cooperation with analysis and observe, and the excellent high quality of RIEGL scanners permits even demanding forestry purposes,” provides his BOKU colleague Prof. Dr. Karl Stampfer from the Institute of Forest Engineering. “RIEGL is the gold commonplace, the RIEGL VZ-600i will dominate the marketplace for the subsequent few years,” emphasizes Günther Bronner, Managing Director of the forestry providers firm Umweltdata, Tullnerbach, Decrease Austria.
Supply: Press Launch
