Aguilar, F.J.; Rodríguez, F.A.; Aguilar, M.A.; Nemmaoui, A.; Álvarez-Taboada, F. Forestry Applications of Space-Borne LiDAR Sensors: A Worldwide Bibliometric Analysis. Sensors2024, 24, 1106.
Aguilar, F.J.; Rodríguez, F.A.; Aguilar, M.A.; Nemmaoui, A.; Álvarez-Taboada, F. Forestry Applications of Space-Borne LiDAR Sensors: A Worldwide Bibliometric Analysis. Sensors 2024, 24, 1106.
Aguilar, F.J.; Rodríguez, F.A.; Aguilar, M.A.; Nemmaoui, A.; Álvarez-Taboada, F. Forestry Applications of Space-Borne LiDAR Sensors: A Worldwide Bibliometric Analysis. Sensors2024, 24, 1106.
Aguilar, F.J.; Rodríguez, F.A.; Aguilar, M.A.; Nemmaoui, A.; Álvarez-Taboada, F. Forestry Applications of Space-Borne LiDAR Sensors: A Worldwide Bibliometric Analysis. Sensors 2024, 24, 1106.
Abstract
The 21st century has seen the launch of new space-borne sensors based on LiDAR (light detection and ranging) technology developed in the second half of the 20th century. LiDAR was initially developed to integrate laser-focused imaging with the capability to determine distances through the measurement of signal return times, utilizing suitable sensors and data acquisition electronics. Nowadays, these sensors have transformed into robust instruments, offering novel opportunities for mapping terrain, canopy heights, and estimating above-ground biomass (AGB) across local to regional scales. This work aims to analyze the scientific impact of these sensors on large-scale for-est mapping to retrieve 3D canopy information, monitor forest degradation, estimate AGB, and model key ecosystem variables such as primary productivity and biodiversity. In this way, a worldwide bibliometric analysis of this topic was carried out based on up to 412 publications in-dexed in the Scopus database during the period 2004-2022. The results showed that the number of published documents increased exponentially in the last five years, coinciding with the commis-sioning of two new LiDAR space missions: Ice, Cloud and Land Elevation Satellite (ICESat-2) and Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI). These missions are providing data since 2018 and 2019, respectively. The journal that demonstrated the highest productivity in this field was "Remote Sensing," and among the leading contributors, the top five countries in terms of publica-tions were the USA, China, the UK, France, and Germany. In the realm of prominent research in-stitutions, France boasted six, the USA had four, China had three, while the UK and Canada each had one. The upward trajectory in the number of publications recorded from 2004 to 2022 catego-rizes the subject under investigation as a highly trending research topic, particularly within the context of enhancing the administration of forest resources and engaging in global climate treaty frameworks mandating the surveillance and reporting of carbon stocks in forests. The recent launch in August 2022 of the Terrestrial Ecosystem Carbon Monitoring Satellite (TECMS; China State Administration of Forestry and Grassland), along with the planned launch in the coming years of up to three new space sensors, such as the Multi-footprint Observation LiDAR and Im-ager (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency), the BIOMASS P-band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) (European Space Agency), and the LiDAR Surface Topography (LIST; NASA), will greatly contribute to expanding the ability to map and monitor forest systems at very large scales. In this context, the integration of space-borne data, including imagery, SAR, and LiDAR, is anticipated to steer the trajectory of this research in the upcoming years.
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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