Journal Article

Individual-Tree DBH Estimation from Airborne LiDAR Data Using MSFS–XGBoost

Jia, Yue, Li, Pengfei

2026

Overview

Diameter at breast height (DBH) is a fundamental structural parameter for forest inventory and ecological analysis. However, field-based measurements (e.g., diameter tape surveys) are labor-intensive and inefficient for large-scale applications. Airborne light detection and ranging (LiDAR) provides an efficient alternative for individual-tree DBH estimation. Nevertheless, LiDAR-derived features—defined as statistical descriptors of point cloud structure and radiometric properties—are typically high-dimensional and redundant, which may degrade model performance. To address this issue, this study proposes an integrated framework combining Multi-Stage Feature Selection (MSFS) and Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) for DBH estimation. A total of 104 variables, including LiDAR-derived features (height, density, intensity, and canopy structure metrics) and structural parameters (tree height, crown diameter, and crown area), were used as predictors. The MSFS framework was applied to progressively reduce feature redundancy and identify an optimal subset, which was then used to train the XGBoost model. The results demonstrate that the MSFS–XGBoost model achieved the best performance, with a coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.901 and a root mean square error (RMSE) of 1.647 cm. Compared with models using the original feature set, R2 increased by 0.384 and RMSE decreased by 1.146 cm. These findings indicate that the proposed framework effectively improves DBH estimation accuracy and provides a reliable approach for individual-tree parameter estimation and large-scale forest resource monitoring using airborne LiDAR data.

• Publisher: MDPI AG,Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)
• Subject: Accuracy / airborne LiDAR / Algorithms / Correlation analysis / DBH estimation / Feature selection / Learning strategies / machine learning / Multi-Stage Feature Selection / Optical radar / Optimization / Parameter estimation / Regression analysis / Remote sensing / Unmanned aerial vehicles / Variables