NEWS ARTICLES / OCTOBER 2025

Improved understanding of forest structure with terrestrial LiDAR

Wed 15 October 2025,  NGC Communication Team

Terrestrial laser scanning.
NEW NEXTGENCARBON PUBLICATION The newly published study has looked at the ways terrestrial laser scanning is able to diversify our understanding of forest structure and ecosystem dynamics. This includes new insights into forest disturbances and improved structural assessments in forest and carbon inventories.

The second scientific paper from NextGenCarbon was published in Nature Communications on 6 October. "Expanding forest research with terrestrial LiDAR technology" discusses how terrestrial LiDAR has improved our understanding of forest structure. NGC colleagues Benjamin Brede and Martin Herold from GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences are among the authors of the paper. In the NextGenCarbon project, both scientists are working in the In-situ supersites & RS integration team (WP2*), where Martin Herold is also the team lead.   

The article discusses recent advancements in terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), also known as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), and its applications in forest science. Furthermore, it explains how the increasing computational power and rise of artificial intelligence are enabling researchers to address more complex issues.

TLS allows to measure 3D attributes like branch lengths and angles, that have been impractical to measure at scale with traditional methods like measurement tapes. 

Benjamin Brede contributed to the review with an overview about the use and possibilities of TLS in forest inventories. TLS plays a vital role in NextGenCarbon WP2 for the structural characterisation and detection of structural change at ICOS sites. An ICOS site is a research station within the Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS), a European research network for monitoring greenhouse gases.

- Basically TLS allows to measure 3D attributes like branch lengths and angles, that have been impractical to measure at scale with traditional methods like measurement tapes. The TLS data acquisition in NextGenCarbon will continue early next year to take advantage of the defoliated trees, so that branch architecture is easier to identify, says Benjamin Brede, describing the next steps in the data collection process.

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Read the open access paper from Nature Communications

Maeda, E.E., Brede, B., Calders, K. et al. Expanding forest research with terrestrial LiDAR technology. Nat Commun 16, 8853 (2025).  https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-63946-6

*WP=Work package