Application of lidar and optical data for oil palm plantation management in Malaysia

Helmi Z. M. Shafri; Mohd Hasmadi Ismail; Mohd Khairil Mohd Razi; Mohd Izzuddin Anuar; Abdul Rahman Ahmad

doi:10.1117/12.979631

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19 November 2012 Application of lidar and optical data for oil palm plantation management in Malaysia

Helmi Z. M. Shafri, Mohd Hasmadi Ismail, Mohd Khairil Mohd Razi, Mohd Izzuddin Anuar, Abdul Rahman Ahmad

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Proceedings Volume 8526, Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring XIII; 852608 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.979631
Event: SPIE Asia-Pacific Remote Sensing, 2012, Kyoto, Japan

Abstract

Proper oil palm plantation management is crucial for Malaysia as the country depends heavily on palm oil as a major source of national income. Precision agriculture is considered as one of the approaches that can be adopted to improve plantation practices for plantation managers such as the government-owned FELDA. However, currently the implementation of precision agriculture based on remote sensing and GIS is still lacking. This study explores the potential of the use of LiDAR and optical remote sensing data for plantation road and terrain planning for planting purposes. Traditional approaches use land surveying techniques that are time consuming and costly for vast plantation areas. The first ever airborne LiDAR and multispectral survey for oil palm plantation was carried out in early 2012 to test its feasibility. Preliminary results show the efficiency of such technology in demanding engineering and agricultural requirements of oil palm plantation. The most significant advantage of the approach is that it allows plantation managers to accurately plan the plantation road and determine the planting positions of new oil palm seedlings. Furthermore, this creates for the first time, digital database of oil palm estate and the airborne imagery can also be used for related activities such as oil palm tree inventory and detection of palm diseases. This work serves as the pioneer towards a more frequent application of LiDAR and multispectral data for oil palm plantation in Malaysia.

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Helmi Z. M. Shafri, Mohd Hasmadi Ismail, Mohd Khairil Mohd Razi, Mohd Izzuddin Anuar, and Abdul Rahman Ahmad "Application of lidar and optical data for oil palm plantation management in Malaysia", Proc. SPIE 8526, Lidar Remote Sensing for Environmental Monitoring XIII, 852608 (19 November 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.979631

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