A Unified Graph-based Framework for Scalable 3D Tree Reconstruction and Non-Destructive Biomass Estimation from Point Clouds

TL;DR

This paper introduces a scalable, graph-based framework for 3D tree reconstruction from point clouds, enabling non-destructive biomass estimation across large forest areas with high accuracy under various conditions.

Contribution

It presents a novel end-to-end graph-based pipeline that improves scalability and robustness of 3D tree reconstruction and biomass estimation from diverse point cloud data.

Findings

Strong performance in leaf-on conditions (~20% error)

Effective with low-density UAV laser scans (~30% error)

First end-to-end method for large-scale 3D tree reconstruction

Abstract

Estimating forest above-ground biomass (AGB) is crucial for assessing carbon storage and supporting sustainable forest management. Quantitative Structural Model (QSM) offers a non-destructive approach to AGB estimation through 3D tree structural reconstruction. However, current QSM methods face significant limitations, as they are primarily designed for individual trees,depend on high-quality point cloud data from terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), and also require multiple pre-processing steps that hinder scalability and practical deployment. This study presents a novel unified framework that enables end-to-end processing of large-scale point clouds using an innovative graph-based pipeline. The proposed approach seamlessly integrates tree segmentation,leaf-wood separation and 3D skeletal reconstruction through dedicated graph operations including pathing and abstracting for tree topology reasoning. Comprehensive validation was conducted on datasets with varying leaf conditions (leaf-on and leaf-off), spatial scales (tree- and plot-level), and data sources (TLS and UAV-based laser scanning, ULS). Experimental results demonstrate strong performance under challenging conditions, particularly in leaf-on scenarios (~20% relative error) and low-density ULS datasets with partial coverage (~30% relative error). These findings indicate that the proposed framework provides a robust and scalable solution for large-scale, non-destructive AGB estimation. It significantly reduces dependency on specialized pre-processing tools and establishes ULS as a viable alternative to TLS. To our knowledge, this is the first method capable of enabling seamless, end-to-end 3D tree reconstruction at operational scales. This advancement substantially improves the feasibility of QSM-based AGB estimation, paving the way for broader applications in forest inventory and climate change research.