Investigation of the three-wave lidar capabilities for monitoring the lower tier forest vegetation

Abstract The possibilities of the three-wave pulsed lidar for monitoring the lower tier of forest vegetation have been studied. The simulation analysis results of the lower tier forest vegetation groups identification on a neural net using measured vegetation spectral reflectance for different wavelengths of the three-wave lidar are presented. It is shown that the best options are lidars with wavelengths 532, 1064, 1570 nm and 532, 1064, 2030 nm. The three-wavelength lidar with these wavelengths allows the identification of five lower tier forest vegetation groups (undergrowth of deciduous trees; undergrowth of coniferous trees; areas of swamps, mosses and shrubby plants; soils with different percentages of vegetation coverage; areas of dry forest, soils without vegetation, lichens, burnt areas) with a probability of correct identification over 0.8 and a probability of incorrect identification under 0.08 (for a relative RMS noise values of 1%).