Airborne laser scanning as a basis for forest mensuration

In this summary, we give an overview of the application of airborne laser scanning (ALS) data for predicting the main forest inventory variables in Estonia. When Estonia being one of the few countries with wall-to-wall ALS availability, the need for applicable models for Estonian forests was imminent. Over the past decade, different studies have been carried out to develop models for standing wood volume, forest height, canopy cover, canopy base height, and methods for monitoring height growth and detect small-scale harvests. The main findings showed strong correlations for all the studied parameters and different methods utilizing low-density lidar data for practical forest inventory purposes. Options for using repea ted ALS measurements for continuous forest inventory are discussed.