FOR-instance: a UAV laser scanning benchmark dataset for semantic and instance segmentation of individual trees

The challenge of accurately segmenting individual trees from laser scanning data hinders the assessment of crucial tree parameters necessary for effective forest management, impacting many downstream applications. While dense laser scanning offers detailed 3D representations, automating the segmentation of trees and their structures from point clouds remains difficult. The lack of suitable benchmark datasets and reliance on small datasets have limited method development. The emergence of deep learning models exacerbates the need for standardized benchmarks. Addressing these gaps, the FOR-instance data represent a novel benchmarking dataset to enhance forest measurement using dense airborne laser scanning data, aiding researchers in advancing segmentation methods for forested 3D scenes. In this repository, users will find forest laser scanning point clouds from unamnned aerial vehicle (using Riegl sensors) that are manually segmented according to the individual trees (1130 trees) and semantic classes. The point clouds are subdivided into five data collections representing different forests in Norway, the Czech Republic, Austria, New Zealand, and Australia. These data are meant to be used either for developement of new methods (using the dev data) or for testing of exisitng methods (test data). The data splits are provided in the data_split_metadata.csv file. A full description of the FOR-instance data can be found at http://arxiv.org/abs/2309.0127