Old-growth forests provide a variety of services to human populations such as water, carbon storage and ecotourism. Despite the value of old-growth forests, this resource is constantly under anthropogenic pressure. Airborne LiDAR Metrics were applied to estimate attributes of old-growth forests (ex. height, canopy cover, vertical complexity, understory density) and develop an index for old-growth forests.
This research brings light to OGMAs’ definition and their evaluation through the use of a relatively new technique, LiDAR. More importantly, the identification of the amount and location of old-growth forests over the landscape can aid to the conservation of this rare resource and its services .