Homogeneous tree height derivation from tree crown delineation using Seeded Region Growing (SRG) segmentation

The demand for tree height derivation is increasing year by year, especially for large plantation and forest area. The conventional method needs a long time to complete tree measurement for large forest area, especially when using a pole, measuring tape, rangefinder, clinometer, and tree climbing. This study aims to evaluate the height of oil palm tree based on crown diameter by using a multi-rotor Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and orthophoto were generated by using Agisoft software, while oil palm tree crown diameter was delineated by using seed generation with Quantum Geographic Information System (QGIS) and Seeded Region Growing (SRG) segmentation methods in the System for Automated Geoscientific Analysis (SAGA). The study validates the results between the actual tree height and tree height estimated from UAV. The results showed that the orthophoto was successfully generated with a Ground Sampling Distance (GSD) of 2.95 cm and 129 tree crowns were successfully analyzed. The accuracy of the tree height as compared to the actual measurement was 57.7 cm. In conclusion, UAV images are capable of determining the tree height after going through the correct procedure to help foresters in their daily task.