3DFin: a software for 3D Forest Inventory in Terrestrial Point Clouds

Forest inventory, the systematic collection of data and information on a given forested area, is a key tool for sustainable forest management. Remote sensing technologies, especially terrestrial-based ones, are increasingly used to carry out these inventories, as they provide detailed and precise 3D measurements of the forest in the form of point clouds. Here we present ‘3DFin’, a recently developed software that automatically derives tree metrics from terrestrial point clouds. 3DFin automatically computes key forest inventory parameters, such as tree Total Height (TH), Diameter at Breast Height (DBH), and tree location. To maximize its reach, and make it accessible to wider audiences, 3DFin has been developed as a free, open-source program. It features an user-friendly graphical user interface and is available as a standalone software in Windows and, also, as a plugin in CloudCompare and QGIS. In this presentation we will show the performance of this software, presenting tests carried out in terrestrial, hand-held and photogrammetric point clouds across different forest conditions.