Utilizing 360° photography to assess forest recovery seven years after hurricane impact

Many forestry studies rely on obtaining measurements on forest vertical
structure, canopy closure, ground cover, and other data types through the
use of manual labor, which is time-consuming, expensive, labor-intensive,
and may not be feasible following a major hurricane. We established a
total of 75 survey points across the trails of Las Casas de la Selva, a
sustainable forestry plantation located in Patillas, Puerto Rico. The
property took a direct hit from Hurricane Maria, a Category 4 storm with
winds of up to 241 kph, on September 20, 2017. We took 360° photos at each
survey point seven years later, which were then analyzed within a virtual
reality environment to quantify forest vertical structure and transformed
them into two batches of hemispherical photos, with one set focused on the
canopy and the other on the ground. Collecting data in this way opens up
the possibility for monitoring forest/vegetation health over time, as
sites at trails are easy to access, and only 360° photos are needed. We
computed the Vertical Habitat Diversity Index (VHDI) from the amount of
foliage in 4 strata: herbaceous, shrub, understory, and canopy.