Professor Benoît St-Onge of the Université du Québec à Montréal is using airborne multispectral LiDAR data to identify trees by genus. The technique can differentiate between hardwood/softwood trees with only a 3-percent error rate and identify trees by genus with only a 15-percent error rate by combining information from Optech's Titan multispectral sensor and 3D data.
St-Onge's techniques can be used to quickly assess large tracts of forest in applications such as carbon/biomass measurement, biodiversity, forest science and tree farming.