investigatin the accuracy of iPhone LiDAR in preparing point clouds of tree trunks (Case study: Middle Zagros - Oak forests of Lorestan province)

Zagros forests are one of the important and strategic areas of the country. Forest inventories in areas like Zagros is expensive and time-consuming due to the difficult access and low density of trees. Laser scanning methods to prepare point clouds and produce maps provide valuable and significant information in forest management. With the release of the LiDAR short-range light detection sensor in 2020 by Apple, it became possible to use alternative scanning methods. In the present study, in order to check the accuracy of iPhone LiDAR in preparing point clouds of tree trunks, 37 Iranian oak trees were selected and specific longitudinal and transverse distances were marked on their trunks. The high accuracy of the point clouds for these distances resulted in a high correlation between the generated point clouds and the real distances. The RMSE% was obtained for longitudinal distances of 1.33 cm and for transverse distances of 2.2 cm respectively, which proves the high accuracy of the mentioned technology and its high capability in extracting quantitative components of tree trunks.