Rapid Forest Fuel Load Estimation via Virtual Remote Sensing and Metric-Scale Feed-Forward 3D Reconstruction

Fuente: arXiv
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Autori principali: Wu, Quanyun, Gao, Kyle, Sun, Wentao, Xu, Zhengsen, Sun, Hudson, Xu, Linlin, Chen, Yuhao, Clausi, David A., Li, Jonathan
Natura: Preprint
Pubblicazione: 2026
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author Wu, Quanyun
Gao, Kyle
Sun, Wentao
Xu, Zhengsen
Sun, Hudson
Xu, Linlin
Chen, Yuhao
Clausi, David A.
Li, Jonathan
author_facet Wu, Quanyun
Gao, Kyle
Sun, Wentao
Xu, Zhengsen
Sun, Hudson
Xu, Linlin
Chen, Yuhao
Clausi, David A.
Li, Jonathan
contents Accurate quantification of forest coverage and combustible biomass (fuel load) is critical for wildfire risk assessment and ecosystem management. However, traditional methods relying on airborne LiDAR or field surveys are cost-prohibitive and time-intensive, while satellite imagery often lacks the vertical resolution required for canopy volume analysis. This paper proposes a novel, automated pipeline for rapid forest inventory using virtual remote sensing data derived from Google Earth Studio (GES). Our approach first generates low-altitude orbital imagery and camera poses for a target region. For dense 3D reconstruction, we employ Pi-Long, developed within the VGGT-Long framework. This model serves as a scalable extension of the Pi-3 feed-forward Transformer architecture. To address the inherent scale ambiguity in monocular reconstruction, we introduce a metric recovery module that aligns the reconstructed trajectory with GES ground truth poses via Sim(3) Umeyama optimization. The metric-scale point cloud is then orthogonally projected into Bird's-Eye-View (BEV) height and density maps. Finally, we employ a watershed-based segmentation algorithm combined with height variance analysis to classify tree species (conifer vs. broadleaf), calculate Leaf Area Index (LAI), and estimate total fuel load. Experimental results demonstrate that this pipeline offers a scalable, cost-effective alternative to physical scanning, enabling near-real-time estimation of forest biomass with high geometric consistency.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2605_10789
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Rapid Forest Fuel Load Estimation via Virtual Remote Sensing and Metric-Scale Feed-Forward 3D Reconstruction
Wu, Quanyun
Gao, Kyle
Sun, Wentao
Xu, Zhengsen
Sun, Hudson
Xu, Linlin
Chen, Yuhao
Clausi, David A.
Li, Jonathan
Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
Accurate quantification of forest coverage and combustible biomass (fuel load) is critical for wildfire risk assessment and ecosystem management. However, traditional methods relying on airborne LiDAR or field surveys are cost-prohibitive and time-intensive, while satellite imagery often lacks the vertical resolution required for canopy volume analysis. This paper proposes a novel, automated pipeline for rapid forest inventory using virtual remote sensing data derived from Google Earth Studio (GES). Our approach first generates low-altitude orbital imagery and camera poses for a target region. For dense 3D reconstruction, we employ Pi-Long, developed within the VGGT-Long framework. This model serves as a scalable extension of the Pi-3 feed-forward Transformer architecture. To address the inherent scale ambiguity in monocular reconstruction, we introduce a metric recovery module that aligns the reconstructed trajectory with GES ground truth poses via Sim(3) Umeyama optimization. The metric-scale point cloud is then orthogonally projected into Bird's-Eye-View (BEV) height and density maps. Finally, we employ a watershed-based segmentation algorithm combined with height variance analysis to classify tree species (conifer vs. broadleaf), calculate Leaf Area Index (LAI), and estimate total fuel load. Experimental results demonstrate that this pipeline offers a scalable, cost-effective alternative to physical scanning, enabling near-real-time estimation of forest biomass with high geometric consistency.
title Rapid Forest Fuel Load Estimation via Virtual Remote Sensing and Metric-Scale Feed-Forward 3D Reconstruction
topic Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.10789