Speaker: Jacob Strunk
When?: 15 September 2020, 1400 EST
Access: Register for this webinar at https://learn.eforester.org/products/an-overview-of-naip-derived-point-clouds-for-forest-monitoring

The USDA National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) collects nationwide imagery approximately every two years using airborne pushbroom sensors. Photogrammetric software is used to generate canopy surface models (CSMs) from NAIP imagery, which enables nationwide forest height mapping every two years! The NAIP derived canopy surface data in some ways resemble lidar data products, but they do not contain information from within and below the upper canopy. NAIP-derived canopy surface models are low-cost (less than $0.01 / acre), frequent, and nationwide (conterminous USA), which makes them conducive to broad-scale measurement and monitoring of forest conditions. The VMaRS team from the USFS PNW Research Station has been exploring the potential of NAIP DSMs for the last few years. This presentation addresses sampling efficiency with auxiliary NAIP CSMs, forest yield modeling performance relative to lidar and frame-based imagery (pushbroom and frame-based imagery perform differently), and provides visual comparison with equivalent lidar for multiple states.