By KiddieDaily Editors · 2026-06-29 · 3 min read · 1 source

Laser scanning forests may boost carbon estimates, but credibility questions linger

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Facebook Linkedin Threads Whatsapp Reddit Email Page link Cite article Ground-based laser scanning, called LiDAR, can be used to make detailed maps of forest structure.Such detail can allow for more accurate estimates of the amount of carbon stored in aboveground vegetation, which is helpful for assessing the outcomes of reforestation projects and assigning an accurate number of carbon credits.Carbon credits, bought and sold on the carbon market, are used by companies and other entities to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions.But experts caution that transparency, not estimation accuracy, remains the carbon market’s biggest challenge.See All Key Ideas Forests are natural carbon sinks. But as reforestation of degraded land is becoming a global climate solution, a persistent question lingers: How do we know how much carbon a forest is actually storing? Researchers say ground-based laser scanning, or LiDAR, could improve the efficiency of measuring the outcomes of reforestation.

And a recent paper published in Ecological Solutions and Evidence found that LiDAR scanning in Australia offered an improvement over other methods of carbon estimation. LiDAR instruments emit thousands of tiny laser pulses to create complex and intricate 3D maps of a forest’ structure, allowing researchers to more accurately estimate how much carbon is contained in its trees. Co-author of the paper Alexander W.

Cheesman, a senior research fellow at James Cook University, North Queensland, Australia, calls the technology “transformative.” “Traditional field surveys heavily relied on manually measuring the height and diameter of a relatively small number of trees. But laser scanning captures the whole forest in 360 degrees, recording every stem, every branch and the shape of the canopy,” Cheesman told Mongabay during a virtual interview over Google Meet. In Australia, the Full Carbon Accounting Model (FullCAM) is the government’s main tool to track carbon stored in soil and roots (belowground carbon) and vegetation (aboveground carbon).

It is used for national greenhouse gas reporting to the United Nations and to assess carbon credit within the country, through the government’s Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) Scheme. Rather than directly measuring carbon, FullCAM simulates the movement of carbon through ecosystems by integrating data on climate, soils, land use and management and land cover change. In their study, Cheesman and his coauthors compared carbon estimates produced by Australia’s FullCAM model with LiDAR measurements for three restored rainforest sites established in the 1990s.

The researchers found that the FullCAM model estimated the test forests contained 8% less carbon than LiDAR. While they acknowledge that 8% isn’t a dramatic difference and that “the model performed reasonably well,” they maintain that LiDAR still offers an improvement. However, other experts say that LiDAR is not free from errors, and that it is a very expensive tool.

Some entry-level terrestrial laser scanning equipment costs more than $40,000, making it unaffordable for projects without adequate funding. Moreover, the paper’s conflict of interest statement discloses that co-author Abbey R Yatsko, is an employee of ArborMeta, an Australian LiDAR-based forest monitoring company.

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