Progress analysis of LiDAR research on forestry science studies

The research progress of LiDAR technology on forestry science studies was comprehensively discovered using literature analysis based on the Web of science platform. One thousand and 355 related papers since year 2000 were found and used for statistics, including year trend, regional distribution, author ranking, journal distribution, institution of authors, and major forest parameters. The principal international and internal conferences on forestry LiDAR applications were also summarized. The main types of LiDAR sensors were classified; and two data structures were proposed (waveform and point cloud). The methods to extract forest parameters from LiDAR were systematically analyzed, including waveform analysis, point cloud analysis, forest parameter prediction and data fusion. We conclude that the depth and breadth of LiDAR application studies over forestry science are keeping increasing; research methods are becoming a system; there are systematic international conferences; but research level varies with region; mechanism and practicability to extract forest parameters are inadequate from maturity, which leaves room for improvements. Finally, suggestions on theory, application and organization studies on LiDAR applications on forestry were proposed to provide a kind of reference for related researchers and workers