News/Research

Forest by Bit, Using LiDAR to Represent Sierra Nevada Forests

30 Jun, 2012

Forest by Bit, Using LiDAR to Represent Sierra Nevada Forests

Climate change poses challenges to humanity directly by altering ecosystems. Culturally it challenges our concepts of science and how we view our relationship to the natural world. In my research I address both: the former by asking questions about why plants grow where they grow; the latter by investigating how new visual representations of nature affect the scientific process and public awareness of the natural world. I use terrestrial 3-D scanning technology, also known as LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging), to create a digital representation of my red fir forest study site located in the Sierra Nevada. From this point cloud data, I gather information about tree seedling microclimates and human relations with a digital environment.

Danielle Svehla Christianson, is a Ph.D. candidate in the Energy and Resources Group with a Designated Emphasis in New Media at UC Berkeley. She studies interactions between climate and vegetation, as well as visual representations of nature, with hope of increasing our culture's sustainability. Danielle is a co-author of "Flora of Santa Ana River and Environs" (Heyday 2007) and a contributor to Fibershed.

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Red Fir 10m from Danielle Christianson on Vimeo.
A 3-D representation of my study site in Red Fir Forest of the Sierra Nevada captured using terrestrial LiDAR (Maptek I-Site 4400). In the 600m x 20m transect, I monitor all tree seedlings and measure a variety of climatic variables. This is a screen shot of me interacting with my site via I-Site Studio software.

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Section Slice from Danielle Christianson on Vimeo.
My red fir forest study site in the Sierra Nevada as captured by terrestrial LiDAR (Maptek I-Site 4400). I am viewing the transect by moving a 10m vertical slice through the site. This is a screen shot my interaction with the digital data in I-Site Studio.

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Color wheel from Danielle Christianson on Vimeo.
A 100m x 100m section of my red fir study site in the Sierra Nevada captured with terrestrial LiDAR (Maptek I-Site 4400). In this screen shot of I-Site Studio, I have colored the images so that each individual scan is a separate color.