LiForest

LiForest (LiDAR software for forestry applications) provides a platform that enables users to freely manipulate the LiDAR point cloud and extract useful information specially for forest studies. It consists of several primary modules for LiDAR point cloud data processing, including point cloud visualization, LiDAR-based forest metric calculation, digital model generation, regression models and individual tree segmentation. LiForest has several main features:

1. Domain knowledge: we have many years of experience in forestry applications, and developed tools that meet the need of foresters and ecologists with innovative LiDAR algorithms.2. Massive data capability: as LiDAR data are often very large datasets (e.g. Terabyte level), we develop our algorithms that are scalable and able to process massive data simultaneously.3. Streamline processing and user-friendly interfaces: we strive to make the LiDAR data and LiDAR technology easily applicable to forestry applications, and aim to develop a streamline process that enable users to produce meaningful forestry products with little or no need to change software platforms.4. Remove edge effects: Unlike many LiDAR software which processes point cloud data tile by tile, this will inevitably result in edge effect problem(for example, a tree in the tile edge may be segmented into two trees). LiForest is capable of managing hundreds of tiles simultaneously and take into consideration of neighboring tiles to remove the edge effects.5. Correctness: as it is our goal to generate useful forestry metrics to support the decision making processes, it is crucial to have the right solution for a problem. We have rigorously tested our algorithms to ensure the correctness of the results.