Hannah Weiser

• Master of Science
• PhD Student at Heidelberg University

Virtual laser scanning (VLS) [1] has been used intensively for method development and machine learning in forestry, e.g., for quantification of leaf angle distribution [2], aboveground biomass prediction [3], or leaf-wood segmentation [4]. So far, these applications have been limited to mono-temporal VLS acquisitions where scenes were simplified to...

A Digital Twin (DT) is a data-driven model of a physical entity with two-information flows that enables the direct interaction between both. DTs of the natural environment are typically constructed by fusing multi-modal measurements of some physical phenomena using Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods. The physical entity interacts with the DT thro...

Modern permanently installed laser scanning systems (PLS) allow capturing point clouds in short intervals (e.g., sub-hourly), bringing us closer to the early detection of small surface changes that may precede larger events. Predicting potential hazards necessitates near real-time surface change computation. This requires reliable and efficient met...

1. Virtual Laser Scanning (VLS) is an established and valuable research tool in forestry and ecology, widely used to simulate labelled LiDAR point cloud data for sensitivity analysis, model training and method testing. In VLS, vegetation has traditionally been modelled as static, neglecting the influence of vegetation dynamics on LiDAR point cloud...

Proximally sensed laser scanning presents new opportunities for automated forest ecosystem data capture. However, a gap remains in deriving ecologically pertinent information, such as tree species, without additional ground data. Artificial intelligence approaches, particularly deep learning (DL), have shown promise towards automation. Progress has...

Laser scanning is an active remote sensing technique applied in many disciplines to acquire state-of-the-art spatial measurements. Semantic labeling is often necessary to extract information from the raw point cloud. Deep learning methods constitute a data-hungry solution for the semantic segmentation of point clouds. In this work, we investigate t...

Proximally-sensed laser scanning offers significant potential for automated forest data capture, but challenges remain in automatically identifying tree species without additional ground data. Deep learning (DL) shows promise for automation, yet progress is slowed by the lack of large, diverse, openly available labeled datasets of single tree point...

Data for benchmarking tree species classification from proximally-sensed laser scanning data. The data can be downloaded at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13255198

AIM: We will present how virtual laser scanning (VLS), i.e., simulation of realistic LiDAR campaigns, can be key for applying machine/deep learning (ML/DL) approaches to geographic point clouds. Recent results will be shown for semantic classification and change analysis in multitemporal point clouds using exclusively open source scientific softwar...

Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) systems have been refined to automatically and continuously scan defined areas with high temporal resolution (sub-hourly), leading to the development of Permanent Laser Scanning (PLS). This temporal resolution requires the development of new methods for efficient extraction of change information. The creation of lab...

By simulating laser scanning of dynamic tree scenes, we investigate how tree movement during point cloud acquisition affects the accuracy of a range of tree metrics. Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has proven to be an effective surveying method for forestry and ecology, producing highly detailed 3D point clouds of trees. From these point clouds, a...

We advance the characterization of landscape dynamics through analysis of point cloud time series by integrating virtual laser scanning, machine learning and innovative open source methods for 4D change analysis. We present a novel approach for automatic identification of different surface activity types in real-world 4D geospatial data using a mac...

This dataset contains 11 terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) tree point clouds (in .LAZ format v1.4) of 7 different species, which have been manually labeled into leaf and wood points. The labels are contained in the Classification field (0 = wood, 1 = leaf). The point clouds have additional attributes (Deviation, Reflectance, Amplitude, GpsTime, Poin...

Laser scanning is an active remote sensing technique applied in many disciplines to acquire state-of-the-art spatial measurements. Semantic labeling is often necessary to extract information from the raw point cloud. Deep learning methods constitute a data-hungry solution for the semantic segmentation of point clouds. In this work, we investigate t...

Airborne laser scanning data are increasingly used to predict forest biomass over large areas. Biomass information cannot be derived directly from airborne laser scanning data; therefore, field measurements of forest plots are required to build regression models. We tested whether simulated laser scanning data of virtual forest plots could be used...

Large-scale landslides and secondary processes threaten human lives and infrastructure. Detecting, monitoring and understanding Alpine mass movements lay the foundation for the establishment of early warning systems and construction of protective structures. Challenges of point cloud based change quantification (e.g., with M3C2) arise when point cl...

HELIOS++ is a general-purpose software package for simulation of terrestrial, mobile and airborne laser scanning surveys written in C++11. It is developed and maintained by the 3DGeo Research Group at Heidelberg University with valuable contributions from around the world. - This release is available here: https://github.com/3dgeo-heidelberg/heli...

Airborne laser scanning (ALS) data are routinely used to estimate and map structure-related forest inventory variables. The further development, refinement and evaluation of methods to derive forest inventory variables from ALS data require extensive datasets of forest stand information on an individual tree-level and corresponding ALS data. A cost...

This dataset contains unoccupied aerial vehicle (UAV)-based photogrammetric point clouds, orthophotos, UAV-borne laser scanning point clouds, and terrestrial laser scanning point clouds of three nature reserves of the Sandhausen inland dunes in Baden-Württemberg, Germany: Pflege Schönau, Pferdstrieb Süd, and Zugmantel-Bandholz. The three surveyed a...

The software HELIOS++ simulates the laser scanning of a given virtual scene that can be composed of different spatial primitives and 3D meshes with distinct granularity. The high computational cost of this type of simulation software demands efficient computational solutions. Classical solutions based on GPU are not well suited when irregular geome...

Full-waveform (FWF) airborne laser scanning (ALS) data were acquired in southwest Germany in July 2019. We clipped the data to the extent of the 12 forest plots described in the related data publication (https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.942856), which means that they overlap with the UAV-borne and terrestrial laser scanning data presented in that pu...

Laser scanning from different acquisition platforms enables the collection of 3D point clouds from different perspectives and with varying resolutions. These point clouds allow us to retrieve detailed information on the individual tree and forest structure. We conducted airborne laser scanning (ALS), uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV)-borne laser scanni...

Virtual Laser Scanning (VLS) provides a remote sensing method to generate 3D point clouds, which can, in certain cases, replace real data acquisition. A prerequisite is a suitable substitute of reality for modelling the 3D scene, the scanning system, the platform, the laser beam transmission, the beam-scene interaction, and the echo detection. The...

Laser scanning point clouds of forest stands were acquired in southwest Germany in 2019 and 2020 from different platforms: an aircraft, an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) and a ground-based tripod. The UAV-borne and airborne laser scanning campaigns cover twelve forest plots of approximately 1 ha. The plots are located in mixed central European fores...

Virtual Laser Scanning (VLS) provides a remote sensing method to generate 3D point clouds, which can, in certain cases, replace real data acquisition. A prerequisite is a suitable substitute of reality for modelling the 3D scene, the scanning system, the platform, the laser beam transmission, the beam-scene interaction, and the echo detection. The...

Die Open-Source-Software HELIOS++ (Heidelberg LiDAR Operations Simulator, Winiwarter et al. 2022, https://github.com/3dgeo-heidelberg/helios) ermöglicht realitätsnahe Laserscanning-Simulationen unterschiedlicher 3D-Szenen. Anwendungen von virtuellem Laserscanning sind insbesondere Planung und Optimierung der Datenaufnahme, Entwicklung und Evaluieru...

HELIOS++ (Winiwarter et al. 2022) ist eine Open-Source-Software für die Simulation von Laserscanning, die in C++ implementiert ist. Sie bietet ein gutes Maß an Realismus trotz geringer Laufzeiten und niedriger Anforderungen an die Computerhardware. Die Python-Anbindung pyhelios ermöglicht die Konfiguration und Ausführung von HELIOS++ durch eine wei...

HELIOS++ (Winiwarter et al. 2022) ist eine Open-Source-Software für die Simulation von Laserscanning, die in C++ implementiert ist. Sie bietet ein gutes Maß an Realismus trotz geringer Laufzeiten und niedriger Anforderungen an die Computerhardware. Die Python-Anbindung pyhelios ermöglicht die Konfiguration und Ausführung von HELIOS++ durch eine wei...

Laser scanning from different acquisition platforms enables collecting 3D point clouds from different perspectives and with varying resolutions. Such point clouds allow us to e.g., retrieve information about the forest structure and individual tree properties, or to model individual trees in 3D. We conducted airborne laser scanning (ALS), UAV-borne...

Topographic laser scanning is a remote sensing method to create detailed 3D point cloud representations of the Earth's surface. Since data acquisition is expensive, simulations can complement real data given certain premises are met: (i) models of 3D scene and scanner are available and (ii) modelling of the beam-scene interaction is simplified to a...

Virtual laser scanning (VLS), the simulation of laser scanning in a computer environment, is a useful tool for field campaign planning, acquisition optimisation, and development and sensitivity analyses of algorithms in various disciplines including forestry research. One key to meaningful VLS is a suitable 3D representation of the objects of inter...

LiDAR-based forest inventories focusing on estimating and mapping structure-related forest inventory variables across large areas have reached operationality. In the commonly applied area-based approach, a set of field-measured inventory plots is combined with spatially co-located airborne laserscanning data to train empirical models that can then...

Topographic laser scanning is a remote sensing method to create detailed 3D point cloud representations of the Earth's surface. Since data acquisition is expensive, simulations can complement real data given certain premises are available: i) a model of 3D scene and scanner, ii) a model of the beam-scene interaction, simplified to a computationally...

Updated list of references, three new resources which were used to update the distribution map, are marked in yellow.

This is an updated version of the animated gif distribution map of Isodontia mexicana, including data up to September 2019.

Raw data for the animated gif distribution map, including records up to September 2019. Sources include publications (books, journal articles) as well as various internet sources (including www.naturgucker.de).

Updated list of references, two new resources which were used to update the distribution map, are marked in yellow.

Abstract. Since its fortuitous arrival in the south of France, the Sphecid wasp Isodontia mexicana (Saussure, 1867) has spread through much of central Europe. In the last 20 years it has penetrated southern Germany and is spreading northwestwards down the Rhine Valley to colonise Belgium and Holland. In 2016 it was reported for the first time in En...