Understanding the effects of als pulse density for metric retrieval across diverse forest types

Pulse density, the number of laser pulses that intercept a surface per unit area, is a key consideration when acquiring an Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) dataset. This study compares area-based vegetation structure metrics derived from multireturn ALS simulated at six pulse densities (0.05 to 4 pl m-2) across a range of forest types: from savannah woodlands to dense rainforests. Results suggest that accurate measurement of structure metrics (canopy height, canopy cover, and vertical canopy structure) can be achieved with a pulse density of 0.5 pl m-2 across all forest types when compared to a dataset of 10 pl m-2. For pulse densities