Terrestrial LiDAR data from the SCATTER project

The Scanning Ancient Trees with Terrestrial LiDAR (SCATTER) project captured ancient oak trees with terrestrial LiDAR across the UK to characterise and compare tree architecture.

SCATTER was funded by the Woodland Trust and led by UCL. 

Method

Trees were scanned in between April 2021 and April 2024 at locations across the UK (click on ATI numbers to see location). Scans were acquired with a RIEGL VZ400i terrestrial LiDAR where scan pulse rate was set to 600 KHz and angular resolution set to 0.04 degrees. Between 6 and 12 scan locations were used to capture each tree, depending on tree size and access. Individual scans were then merged and the resulting point cloud subsampled using a voxel size of 0.01 m.

Point clouds are stored in Polygon format and can be viewed in software such as CloudCompare. Each file contains a point cloud with the following fields.

Field
Property

x, y, z
3D coordinates

nx, ny, nz
psuedo-normal that shows direction to scan position

reflectance
normalised reflectance values

deviation
deviation from 

sp
scan position number

label
0=surroundings, 1=tree, 2=supports

Licence and usage

This research was funded by the Woodland Trust Conservation Research Programme. By accessing or using this dataset, you agree to the terms of the relevant licence agreement(s). You will ensure that this dataset is cited in any publication that describes research in which the data have been used.

Additional data sets

Stem videos (10.5281/zenodo.12537511)

Videos of tree stems recoded on a Pixel 7 mobile phone. 

Insta360 videos (10.5281/zenodo.12543267 and 10.5281/zenodo.12580682)

Videos in an equirectangular projection recorded with an Insta360 camera.

Name
Woodland Trust ATI number
Sketchfab link
Stem video
Insta360
Comments

Balmaha Oak
2021
Sketchfab
✓
repo1

Band Stand Oak
10961
Sketchfab

repo1

Belvoir Oak
302
Sketchfab

Birnam Oak
2422
Sketchfab
✓
repo1

Bowthorpe Oak
142
Sketchfab
✓
repo1

Burnham Beeches Three
7905, 7906, 7907
Sketchfab
✓

Additional field where trees are labelled 1 (7906), 2 (7907) and 3 (7905)

Burnham Beeches lapsed pollard
7998
Sketchfab

Cadzow Oaks

112895 and 112896

Sketchfab (Fire)

SketchFab (Entrance)

SketchFab (Fence)

✓
repo1
112895 is named Fence, 112896 is Fire and Entrance is not on the ATI database 

Capon Oak
5320
Sketchfab

repo1

Castle Oak
9998
Sketchfab

repo1

Cathedral Oak
420

✓

Clachan Oak
2407

✓
repo1

Covenanters' Oak
257
Sketchfab
✓
repo1

Crockmere Oak

Sketchfab
✓

 Fell in May 2024 (BBC news article)

Curley Oak
14536
Sketchfab
✓
repo1

Darley Oak
12217
Sketchfab
✓
repo1

Domesday Oak
43692
Sketchfab

Druids Oak
5311
Sketchfab
✓
repo1

Eddington Veteran Oak
96156
Sketchfab

repo1

Gog Hatfield
132309
Sketchfab
✓
repo2 

Hero Oak

Sketchfab

King of Limbs
20876
Sketchfab
✓
repo2 

Majesty Oak
2251
Sketchfab
✓
repo2 

Major Oak
1
Sketchfab
✓
repo2 

Marton Oak
23583
Sketchfab

repo2 

Meavy Oak
157634
Sketchfab

repo2 

Neil Gow’s Oak
2114

✓
repo2 

Oak at the Gate of the Dead
195
Sketchfab
✓
repo2 

Oaks of Avalon
28798 (Magog), 28784 (Gog)
Sketchfab
✓

Additional field where trees are labelled 1 (Magog) and 2 (Gog)

Offa's Oak
1462
Sketchfab
✓
repo2 

Old Man of Calke
109
Sketchfab
✓
repo2 

Pwllpriddog Oak
77528
Sketchfab

repo2 

Queen Elizabeth Oak
4418
Sketchfab

captured with a RIEGL VZ-400

Signing Oak
8205
Sketchfab
✓
 repo2 

West Dean Oak
5915
Sketchfab

captured with a RIEGL VZ-400

Wyesham Oak
6908
Sketchfab
✓
 repo2 

Wyndham's Oak
6884
Sketchfab
✓