THROUGH integration of aerial and ground-based mobile mapping sensors and systems, a team of Purdue digital forestry researchers has used advanced technology to locate, count and measure over a thousand trees in a matter of hours.

'The machines are counting and measuring each tree — it is not an estimation using modeling, it is a true forest inventory,' said Songlin Fei, the dean's remote sensing chairman and professor of forestry and natural resources and leader of Purdue University's Digital Forestry initiative. 'This is a groundbreaking development on our path to using technology for a quick, accurate inventory of the global forest ecosystem, which would improve our ability to prevent forest fires, detect disease, perform accurate carbon counting and make informed forest management decisions.'