Evaluate Tree Growth Rate in the Laurentides Wildlife Reserve Using GEDI and Airborne LiDAR Data

Loss of forest cover and derived effects on forest’s ecosystems services has led to the establish-ment of land management policies and forest monitoring systems, and consequently to the de-mand for accurate and multitemporal data on forest extent and structure. In recent years, space-borne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) missions, such as the Global Ecosystem Dynamics Investigation (GEDI) instrument, have facilitated the repeated acquisition of data on vegetation’s vertical structure. In this study, we designed an approach incorporating GEDI and airborne Li-DAR data, in addition to detailed forestry inventory data, for estimating tree growth dynamics for the Laurentides wildlife reserve in Canada. We estimated an average tree growth rate for the study site of 0.320.003 (SE) m/yr, and evaluated our results against field data and time series of NDVI from Landsat images. Moreover, we discussed the benefits, drawbacks and possible sources of error of our methods. Our study demonstrates the benefits of using spaceborne LiDAR data for extending the temporal coverage of forestry inventories and highlights the ability of GEDI data for detecting changes in forest’s vertical structure.