After more than twenty years of commercial use, laser scanners have reached technical maturity and consequently became a standard tool for 3D-data acquisition across various fields of application. Yet, meaningful stochastic information regarding the achieved metric quality of recorded points remains an open research question. Recent research demonstrated that raw intensity values can be deploye…
Supervised deep learning algorithms have recently achieved state-of-the-art performance in the classification, segmentation and analysis of 3D LiDAR point cloud data in a wide-range of applications and environments. One of the main downsides of deep learning-based approaches is the need for extensive training datasets, i.e. LiDAR point clouds that have been annotated for target tasks by human e…
Real-time semantic segmentation of point clouds has increasing importance in applications related to 3D city modelling and mapping, automated inventory of forests, autonomous driving and mobile robotics. Current state-of-the-art point cloud semantic segmentation methods rely heavily on the availability of 3D laser scanning data. This is problematic in regards of low-latency, real-time applicati…
CNES is currently carrying out a Phase A study to assess the feasibility of a future hyperspectral imaging sensor (10 m spatial resolution) combined with a panchromatic camera (2.5 m spatial resolution). This mission focuses on both high spatial and spectral resolution requirements, as inherited from previous French studies such as HYPEX, HYPXIM, and BIODIVERSITY. To meet user requirements, cos…
In the view of climate change, understanding and managing effects on coastal areas and adjacent cities is essential. Permanent Laser Scanning (PLS) is a successful technique to not only observe notably sandy coasts incidentally or once every year, but (nearly) continuously over extended periods of time. The collected point cloud observations form a 4D point cloud data set representing the evolu…
UAV-mounted sensors can be used to estimate crop biophysical traits, offering an alternative to traditional field scouting. However, the high temporal resolution offered by UAV platforms, critical for identifying small differences in crop conditions, is rarely exploited throughout the entire growing season. This limits growers' ability to obtain timely information for real-time interventions. N…
Thermal mapping of buildings can be one approach to assess the insulation, which is important in regard to upgrade buildings to increase energy efficiency and for climate change adaptation. Personal laser scanning (PLS) is a fast and flexible option that has become increasingly popular to efficiently map building facades. However, some measurement systems do not include sufficient colorization …
Fine-grained information on the level of individual trees constitute key components for forest observation enabling forest management practices tackling the effects of climate change and the loss of biodiversity in forest ecosystems. Such information on individual tree crowns (ITC's) can be derived from the application of ITC segmentation approaches, which utilize remotely sensed data. However,…
Tree species characterise biodiversity, health, economic potential, and resilience of an ecosystem, for example. Tree species classification based on remote sensing data, however, is known to be a challenging task. In this paper, we study for the first time the feasibility of tree species classification using high-density point clouds collected with an airborne close-range multispectral laser s…
Increasing tree mortality due to climate change has been observed globally. Remote sensing is a suitable means for detecting tree mortality and has been proven effective for the assessment of abrupt and large-scale stand-replacing disturbances, such as those caused by windthrow, clear-cut harvesting, or wildfire. Non-stand replacing tree mortality events (e.g., due to drought) are more difficul…