Technical note: Use of digital surface model for hardwood rangeland monitoring

Abstract

We built digital surface models (DSM) that contain 3D surface morphological information of the entire landscape using digital photogrammetry and aerial photographs. Changes in landscape components such as crown closure and tree height in hardwood rangeland were estimated using DSM. In comparison with manual interpretation results, errors of crown closure and tree hieght estimation using DSM were less than 0.7% and 1.5 m, respectively. This technique can be used for rangeland management, monitoring and ecological studies.