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Using Campus-wide LiDAR to Map and Characterize Understory at the University of British Columbia Vancouver Campus

University of British Columbia. Campus and Community Planning

In response to the pressing need to address biodiversity loss and mitigate the impacts of climate change, recent studies have explored the role of understory vegetation in urban green spaces. Despite its importance, understory vegetation is often ignored in current inventories of urban green spaces. The University of British Columbia (UBC) seeks to characterize understory vegetation on campus and apply strategies for mitigating the climate change effect in specific hot spot areas. This study investigated the understory community of the UBC Vancouver campus by (1) mapping the height and height variation of the understory plant in the northern part of the UBC Vancouver campus by extracting campus-wide LiDAR data, and (2) generating complexity analysis near Saltwater residences based on field observation and height data retrieved from the LiDAR point cloud. Four metrics were identified to characterize understory structure complexity, including understory coverage, height variation, understory species diversity, and species rarity. Results indicate that over 50% of the understory in the study area was less than 0.8 meters in height. While understory plants grown near buildings showed relatively higher height variability (ranging from 0.35 to 0.69m), the distribution of understory height was not dependent on spatial location, and there was no clear pattern of similarity in the structural complexity between neighboring areas on the UBC campus. More species with a higher ecological value such as the Tall Oregon grape could be planted near saltwater residences to better combat climate change. Overall, this study demonstrates the potential of LiDAR to model and visualize understory vegetation structure and provides a methodology for conducting its structural analysis on the UBC Vancouver campus. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

Report

eng

2023-09-07

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/85862

Unreviewed

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/