Proceedings of the Scandlaser scientific workshop on airborne laser scanning of forests
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Modern airborne laser scanners can make up to 80 000 precise measurements per second for 3D­ \npositions on the ground and in vegetation canopies. Furthermore, laser scanning technology is stiil \nrapidly improving. Given the latest research, laser scanning obviously has great potential as a tool \nfor estimating forest resources and describing forest environments. \nThe title of the workshop - Scandlaser - is short for "Scandinavian workshop on Laser scanning of \nforest resources". It started with a small informal workshop in Umea, May 2002, with participants \nfrom Finland, Norway, Sweden and Canada. It was then apparent that the Scandinavian countries \nhad complementary experiences in this research field. In Finland several projects related to analy­ \nsis of single trees detected in laser scanner data are ongoing. Much of this work started in the EU \nproject HighScan, coordinated by Helsinki University of Technology. Norway, on the other hand, \nlaser scanning of forest resources on stand level has been taken to a stage where it is nearly op­ \nerationaL In Sweden cooperation between the Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOA) and SLU \nfor laser scanning of forest resources began in1 99 1 and has continued to this day. Further details \nabout the laser scanning experiences in Finland, Norway and Sweden are given in the "country \nreports" in this volume. \nAt the meeting in May 20 02, it was obvious there was a need for a more widely announced scien­ \ntific meeting. We received funding from SNS (the Nordic Forest Research Co-operation committee, \nhttp://www. nordiskskogforskning.org), which is the main economic sponsor of Scandlaser. The \nmeeting could serve a dual purpose: i) to inform and discuss what could currently be done practi­ \ncally in laser scanning of forest resources; and ii) to discuss current scientific issues in this rapidly \ndeveloping field. Therefore, we decided to organize both a "Practical workshop" to be held Sep­ \ntember 2, 2003, and a "Scientific workshop", to be held September 3-4, 2003. With one exception, \nthis proceedings volume includes only the contributions to the Scientific workshop. \nEARSeL (the European Association of Remote Sensing Laboratories, http:l/www.earsel.org) \nhelped in organizing the scientific workshop, which is also the first activity of the new EARSeL \nSpecial Interest Group (SIG) on forestry. Further information about this special interest group can \nbe obtained from Hakan Olsson (Hakan.Olsson@resgeom.slu.se). Furthermore, the workshop is \nalso announced as an activity within IUFRO division 4 (http://www.iufro.org/). \nTo our knowledge, the Scandlaser scientific workshop in Umea is the first meeting of its kind in \nEurope. In 2002, there were two similar meetings organized: The Australian Workshop on Airborne \nLaser Altimetry for Forest and Woodland Inventory and Monitoring, and the International Workshop \non Three-dimensional Analysis of Forest Structure and Terrain using LiDAR Technology. The main \nresults from these workshops are being published in a special issue of the Canadian Journal of \nRemote Sensing, appearing Autumn 2003. We are happy to provide continuity from these work­ \nshops by having one of the editors of the special issue, Dr. Mike Wulder, as one of the key note \nspeakers. Dr. Wulder and Dr. Paul Treitz, who is a member of the Scandlaser scientific commit­ \ntee, were also organizers of the Canadian workshop. Another key note speaker is Dr. Randolph \nWynne from Virginia Polytechnic who gives an overview of forestry laser scanning in the USA. He \nis also the guest editor of a recent (June 2 003) Forest Science special issue on forestry remote \nsensing. We are also pleased to have Dr. Ove Steinvall, head of the department of laser systems \nat the Swedish Defense Research Institute, as a key note speaker. Dr. Steinvall was a pioneer in \nlaser scanning and he is uniquely positioned to provide the forestry community with insights about \nwhat future technology to expect. This proceedings volume is printed in time to be distributed at the workshop, and only the abstracts \nare peer reviewed. The reason for this is that we think this quickly developing field merits fast \ncommunication. A digital version of the proceedings, with illustrations in color, as well as the power \npoint presentations from the practical workshop, will be made available at the EARSeL SIG For­ \nestry home page: http://www-earsel-sig-forestry.slu.se/scandlaser. Furthermore, a few selected \narticles from the scientific workshop are likely to be published in the Scandinavian Journal of For­ \nest Research, after peer review. \nTheScandlaser workshops have been organized jointly between the Swedish University of Agricul­ \ntural Sciences (SLU) , the Agricultural University of Norway (NLH) and the Finnish Geodetic Insti­ \ntute (FG!), with Hakan Olsson at SLU as chairman of the local organizing committee; Erik Nresset \nat NLH, as responsible for the Practical workshop, and Juha Hyyppä at FGi, as chairman the \nscientific committee. Members in the local organizing committee have been Tina Granqvist Pahlen \nand Heather Reese, and members in the scientific committee have been Paul Treitz, Queens Uni­ \nversity; Mats Nilsson, SLU; Hakan Olsson, SLU; and Erik Nresset, NLH. \nIt is our hope that Scandlaser will help create a forestry laser scanner community in Europe, with \nlinks worldwide. Looking forward, one timely follow-on to Scandlaser will be the International Con­ \nference "Laser-Scanners for Forest and Landscape Assessment- Instruments, Processing, Meth­ \nods and Applications", which will be held in Freiburg, Germany, 3 - 6 October 2004. \n(http://www.natscan.de).

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