The Application of Laser Distance Meters in Forestry Industry
Field data collection is a long-standing problem that troubles surveyors, cartographers, GIS database managers, engineers, and researchers. The problem is simple: how to efficiently and accurately collect location and physical feature data for mapping, cataloging, resource inventory, and database storage.
Finding the result of this problem in a given situation can be frustrating. Because:
(1) There may be many methods and techniques that can be used;
(2) In the vast majority of cases, there is no single method that can provide complete and satisfactory results on its own.
The application of laser technology, especially the laser rangefinder developed by Laser Technology Corporation (LTI) in the United States, has become increasingly sophisticated since it was used as a field measurement prototype by the US Department of Agriculture's Forestry Bureau in 1990 and evaluated for its future development. It can be connected to data collectors and GPS, and can be configured with various software, advancing forestry measurement from manual compasses, ropes, inclinometers, and old-fashioned telescopes to the era of single person operation, full station, and comprehensive multi-purpose instruments.
The measurement system designed by LTI is suitable for the inspection and planning of basic vegetation resources and timber sales, distribution maps of logging volume, and road survey measurements. By June 1993, the US Forest Service had purchased over 150 of these instruments. In the field planning and use of the US Department of Agriculture's Forestry Bureau, this laser rangefinder is not only fully functional, and durable, but also cost-effective, especially for areas where the target is unclear. This is evidenced by the shrublands in northern Idaho and the rainforests in southeastern Alaska.
China, with vast resources, has abundant forestry resources. With the large-scale production brought about by the reform and opening up, the important position of forestry in the national economy has become increasingly prominent, and the demand for commercial timber has surged. How to plan the development of forestry, measure forestry resources with higher accuracy, and conduct more accurate inventory and cataloging of forestry resources with a focus on timber sales has become an important issue for forestry departments. Introducing laser measurement technology will help promote China's forestry measurement technology into a new era.
