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Aguilar-Galindo Rodriguez, FernandoAuthor

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December 11, 2025
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Benchmarking of Individual Tree Segmentation Methods in Mediterranean Forest Based on Point Clouds from Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Imagery and Low-Density Airborne Laser Scanning

Publicated to: Remote Sensing. 16 (21): 3974- - 2024-11-01 16(21), DOI: 10.3390/rs16213974

Authors:

Nemmaoui, Abderrahim; Aguilar, Fernando J; Aguilar, Fernando J; Aguilar, Manuel A; Aguilar, Manuel A
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Affiliations

Univ Almeria, Res Ctr CIAIMBITAL, Dept Engn, Carretera Sacramento S-N, La Canada De San Urbano 04120, Almeria, Spain - Author

Abstract

Three raster-based (RB) and one point cloud-based (PCB) algorithms were tested to segment individual Aleppo pine trees and extract their tree height (H) and crown diameter (CD) using two types of point clouds generated from two different techniques: (1) Low-Density (approximate to 1.5 points/m2) Airborne Laser Scanning (LD-ALS) and (2) photogrammetry based on high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) images. Through intensive experiments, it was concluded that the tested RB algorithms performed best in the case of UAV point clouds (F1-score > 80.57%, H Pearson's r > 0.97, and CD Pearsons r > 0.73), while the PCB algorithm yielded the best results when working with LD-ALS point clouds (F1-score = 89.51%, H Pearsons r = 0.94, and CD Pearsons r = 0.57). The best set of algorithm parameters was applied to all plots, i.e., it was not optimized for each plot, in order to develop an automatic pipeline for mapping large areas of Mediterranean forests. In this case, tree detection and height estimation showed good results for both UAV and LD-ALS (F1-score > 85% and >76%, and H Pearsons r > 0.96 and >0.93, respectively). However, very poor results were found when estimating crown diameter (CD Pearsons r around 0.20 for both approaches).
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Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Remote Sensing due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2024 there are still no calculated indicators, but in 2023, it was in position 47/258, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Geosciences, Multidisciplinary.

Independientemente del impacto esperado determinado por el canal de difusión, es importante destacar el impacto real observado de la propia aportación.

Según las diferentes agencias de indexación, el número de citas acumuladas por esta publicación hasta la fecha 2026-04-05:

  • WoS: 4
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-05:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 17.
  • The use of this contribution in bookmarks, code forks, additions to favorite lists for recurrent reading, as well as general views, indicates that someone is using the publication as a basis for their current work. This may be a notable indicator of future more formal and academic citations. This claim is supported by the result of the "Capture" indicator, which yields a total of: 16 (PlumX).

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 1.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 1 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
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Awards linked to the item

This study was funded by the following research projects: (1) "Enabling interdisciplinary collaboration to foster Mediterranean forest sustainable management and socio-economic valuation (ECO2-FOREST)" (Proyecto Retos Junta de Andalucia, Spain. Grant number P18-RT-2327). (2) "Intervention strategies for an integrated and sustainable management of the Mediterranean forest based on an interdisciplinary analysis and its economic assessment" (Programa Operativo FEDER Andalucia 2014-2020, Spain. Grant number UAL2020-SEJ-D1931).
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