appliedgrg/flm: Forest Line Mapper v1.2.0

Forest Line Mapper (FLM) 1.2.0 A tool for enhanced delineation and attribution of linear disturbances in forests

Copyright © 2021 Applied Geospatial Research Group

Credits This tool is part of the Boreal Ecosystem Recovery and Assessment (BERA) Project, and was developed by the Applied Geospatial Research Group.

Citation Applied Geospatial Research Group. (2021). Forest Line Mapper: A tool for enhanced delineation and attribution of linear disturbances in forests [Computer software]. Calgary, AB, Canada.

Purpose / Description FLM is a series of script tools for facilitating the high-resolution mapping and studying of forest lines via processing canopy height models (raster images where pixel-values represent the ground-height of vegetation).

Motivation Given that the process of manually digitizing detailed small-scale (boreal) forest lines is slow and prone to human error, a semi-automated solution is preferred for large-scale application areas. Additionally, high-resolution CHMs allow for improved forest line spatial analysis.

Development History

• December, 2021: V1.2.0 public release, beta test, and this online documentation by Richard Zeng
• February, 2020: Beta public release, beta test, and this online documentation by Gustavo Lopes Queiroz.
• November, 2019: Workflow overhaul (least cost corridor & multiprocessing) by Gustavo Lopes Queiroz.
• November, 2018: First version in Arcpy by Silvia Losada.
• May, 2018: Initial concept (least cost path with ArcGIS model builder) by Sarah Cole and Jerome Cranston.

Changelogs There are major changes to the tools:

• File based approach is switched to memeory based to speedup the processing
• ArcGIS Desktop is no longer supported. ArcGIS Pro is the only platform supported now.
• Added Pre-tagging and Vertex Optimization tools to automate data preparation.

Acknowledgments This work is part of the Boreal Ecosystem Recovery and Assessment (BERA) project, and was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada Collaborative Research and Development Grant (CRDPJ 469943-14) in conjunction with Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries, Cenovus Energy, ConocoPhillips Canada and Canadian Natural Resources.

License This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License version 3.0 as published by the Free Software Foundation.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

Contact Contact the Applied Geospatial Research Group at appliedgrg@gmail.com