Semiautomatic Diameter-at-Breast-Height Extraction from Structure-from-Motion-Based Point Clouds Using a Low-Cost Fisheye Lens

The diameter at breast height (DBH) is a fundamental index used to characterize trees and establish forest inventories. The conventional method of measuring the DBH involves using steel tape meters, rope, and calipers. Alternatively, this study has shown that it can be calculated automatically using image-based algorithms, thus reducing time and effort while remaining cost-effective. The method consists of three main steps: image acquisition using a fisheye lens, 3D point cloud generation using structure-from-motion (SfM)-based image processing, and improved DBH estimation. The results indicate that this proposed methodology is comparable to traditional urban forest DBH measurements, with a root-mean-square error ranging from 0.7 to 2.4 cm. The proposed approach has been evaluated using real-world data, and it has been determined that the F-score assessment metric achieves a maximum of 0.91 in a university garden comprising 74 trees. The successful automated DBH measurements through SfM combined with fisheye lenses demonstrate the potential to improve urban tree inventories.