ITSMe

Provide easy to use functions to quickly obtain structural metrics from individual tree point clouds and their respective quantitative structure models.
https://github.com/lmterryn/itsme

Category: Biosphere
Sub Category: Forest Modeling and Analysis

Last synced: about 21 hours ago
JSON representation

Repository metadata

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/lmterryn/itsme
• Owner: lmterryn
• Created: 2022-01-12T09:37:41.000Z (about 4 years ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2025-07-17T11:09:05.000Z (7 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2026-01-29T10:22:05.549Z (22 days ago)
• Language: R
• Homepage: https://lmterryn.github.io/ITSMe/
• Size: 101 MB
• Stars: 59
• Watchers: 5
• Forks: 9
• Open Issues: 0
• Releases: 5
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.Rmd
  • License: LICENSE
  • Citation: CITATION.cff

README.Rmd

          ---
output: github_document
---



```{r, include = FALSE}
knitr::opts_chunk$set(
  collapse = TRUE,
  comment = "#>",
  fig.path = "man/figures/README-",
  out.width = "100%"
)
```


    



## Goal

The goal of the **ITSMe** (Individual Tree Structural Metrics) R-package is to 
provide easy to use functions to quickly obtain structural metrics from 
individual tree point clouds and their respective quantitative structure models 
(QSMs). 

## Installation

You can install the development version of **ITSMe** from 
[GitHub](https://github.com/) with:

``` r
# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("lmterryn/ITSMe", build_vignettes = TRUE)
```
If your installation is causing trouble try uninstalling and re-installing R and 
RStudio if possible.

## Input

The functions are developed for tree point clouds obtained with TLS and QSMs 
obtained with [TreeQSM](https://github.com/InverseTampere/TreeQSM). The 
functions can, however, also be used on tree point clouds obtained 
from UAV-LS or MLS. You always need to keep in mind that the accuracy of 
the metric measurements will depend on the quality of the data. 

There is also an option to read QSMs generated by [RayCloudTools,
RCT](https://github.com/csiro-robotics/raycloudtools). But at the moment the
functions to calculate specific structural metrics only work for QSMs generated
by treeQSM. However, several metrics such as the total tree volume can be
directly extracted from the RCT QSM after reading it in using **ITSMe**.

## Individual tree structural metrics 

Structural metrics that can be calculated with the **ITSMe** package are 
summarised in the tables below.

### Basic structural metrics

| structural metric             | function name                     | input              |
| ------------------------------|:---------------------------------:|-------------------:|
| tree position                 | tree_position_pc, dbh_pc, dbh_qsm | point cloud        |
| diameter at breast height (m) | dbh_pc, dbh_qsm                   | point cloud, QSM   |
| diameter above buttresses (m) | dab_pc                            | point cloud        |
| tree height (m)               | tree_height_pc, tree_height_qsm   | point cloud, QSM   |
| projected area (m$^{2}$)      | projected_area_pc                 | point cloud        |
| alpha volume (m$^{3}$)        | alpha_volume_pc                   | point cloud        |
| tree volume (m$^{3}$)         | tree_volume_qsm                   | QSM                |
| trunk volume (m$^{3}$)        | trunk_volume_qsm                  | QSM                |
| total branch volume (m$^{3}$) | total_branch_volume_qsm           | QSM                |
| total branch length (m)       | total_branch_length_qsm           | QSM                |
| total cylinder length (m)     | total_cyl_length_qsm              | QSM                |


### Structural metrics from Terryn et al. (2020)

These are the metrics defined in 
[Terryn et al. (2020)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2020.08.009) 
which were adapted from 
[Akerblom et al. (2017)](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2016.12.002) 
except for the branch angle ratio and the relative volume ratio. Definitions of 
the metrics can be found in the help files of the functions and the papers of 
Terryn et al. (2020) and Akerblom et al. (2017). Normalisation according to 
Terryn et al. (2020) as well as Akerblom et al. (2017) is possible through the 
normalisation parameter included in the functions of the metrics that were 
adapted by Terryn et al. (2020). If the tree point cloud is provided along with 
the TreeQSM in the functions, dbh and tree height values are based on the point 
clouds rather than the QSMs. When the buttress parameter is indicated "TRUE" the 
diameter above buttresses instead of the diameter at breast height is used.


| structural metric                         | function name                     | input              |
| ------------------------------------------|:---------------------------------:|-------------------:|
| stem branch angle (degrees)               | stem_branch_angle_qsm             | QSM                |
| stem branch cluster size                  | stem_branch_cluster_size_qsm      | QSM                |
| stem branch radius (-/m)                  | stem_branch_radius_qsm            | QSM (+point cloud) |
| stem branch length (-/m)                  | stem_branch_length_qsm            | QSM (+point cloud) |
| stem branch distance (-/m)                | stem_branch_distance_qsm          | QSM (+point cloud) |
| dbh tree height ratio                     | dbh_height_ratio_qsm              | QSM (+point cloud) |
| dbh tree volume ratio (m$^{-2}$)          | dbh_volume_ratio_qsm              | QSM (+point cloud) |
| volume below 55                           | volume_below_55_qsm               | QSM                |
| cylinder length volume ratio (m$^{-2}$)   | cylinder_length_volume_ratio_qsm  | QSM                |
| shedding ratio                            | shedding_ratio_qsm                | QSM                |
| branch angle ratio                        | branch_angle_ratio_qsm            | QSM                |
| relative volume ratio                     | relative_volume_ratio_qsm         | QSM                |
| crown start height                        | crown_start_height_qsm            | QSM (+point cloud) |
| crown height                              | crown_height_qsm                  | QSM (+point cloud) |
| crown evenness                            | crown_evenness_qsm                | QSM                |
| crown diameter crown height ratio         | crown_diameterheight_ratio_qsm    | QSM (+point cloud) |
| dbh minimum tree radius ratio             | dbh_minradius_ratio_qsm           | QSM (+point cloud) |

## Examples
For complete workflows, have a look at the **ITSMe** vignette with: 
```{r eval = FALSE}
vignette("ITSMe")
```

Calculating the diameter at breast height versus the diameter above buttresses 
of a tree:
```{r eval = FALSE}
library(ITSMe)
# Read the point cloud file from the Specified path to the tree point cloud file
pc_tree <- read_tree_pc(path = "path/to/point/cloud.txt")
# Use dbh_pc function with default parameters and plot the fit
out_dbh <- dbh_pc(pc = pc_tree, plot = TRUE)
# Access the dbh, residual and fdbh values from the output list
dbh <- out_dbh$dbh
residual_dbh <- out_dbh$R2
fdbh <- out_dbh$fdbh
# Use dab_pc function with default parameters and plot the fit
out_dab <- dab_pc(pc = pc_tree, plot = TRUE)
# Access the dab, residual and fdab values from the output list
ddab <- out_dab$dab
residual_dab <- out_dab$R2
fdab <- out_dab$fdab
```


    



    



Calculating the stem branch distance of a TreeQSM:
```{r eval = FALSE}
library(ITSMe)
# Read the TreeQSM file from the Specified path to the TreeQSM file
qsm <- read_tree_qsm(path = "path/to/QSM.mat")
# Use stem_branch_distance_qsm function
sbd <- stem_branch_distance_qsm(
  cylinder = qsm$cylinder,
  treedata = qsm$treedata, normalisation = "dbh"
)
# Using the point cloud information for more accurate dbh normalisation
pc_tree <- read_tree_pc(path = "path/to/point/cloud.txt")
sbd <- stem_branch_distance_qsm(
  cylinder = qsm$cylinder,
  treedata = qsm$treedata, normalisation = "dbh",
  pc = pc_tree, buttress = TRUE
)
```

Calculating a summary data.frame with the basic structural metrics 
(tree position, dbh, dab, tree height, projected area, 3D alpha volume) that 
can be  obtained from individual tree point clouds for all point clouds in a 
specific folder: 
```{r eval = FALSE}
library(ITSMe)
# Run summary function with default parameter settings
basic_summary <- summary_basic_pointcloud_metrics(
  PCs_path = "path/to/point/cloud/folder/",
  OUT_path = "path/to/output/folder/")
```
If you set the plot parameter TRUE and provide an OUT_path, this function saves 
a summary figure for each tree: 


    


Calculating a summary data.frame with the structural metrics defined by Terryn
et al. (2020) for all TreeQSMs in a specific folder: 
```{r eval = FALSE}
library(ITSMe)
# Run summary function with default parameter settings
qsm_summary <- summary_qsm_metrics(
  QSMs_path = "path/to/QSM/folder/",
  version = "2.3.0",
  PCs_path = "path/to/point/cloud/folder/",
  extension = ".txt"
)
```

        

Citation (CITATION.cff)

cff-version: 1.1.0
message: "If you use this software, please cite it as below."
authors:
  - family-names: Louise
    given-names: Terryn
    orcid: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8405-2788
title: "lmterryn/ITSMe: submission release"
version: v1.0.0
doi: 10.5281/zenodo.6769105
date-released: 2022-06-28
url: "https://github.com/lmterryn/ITSMe"

---

Owner metadata

• Name: Louise Terryn
• Login: lmterryn
• Email:
• Kind: user
• Description: I am a PhD student at CAVElab (research group at Ghent University, Belgium). I do research on the structure of tropical forest/trees using LiDAR (TLS & UAV-LS)
• Website:
• Location:
• Twitter: LouiseTerrynn
• Company:
• Icon url: https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/62995899?u=11577db6a2e411acc545a887dcccf0778dfb93d0&v=4
• Repositories: 1
• Last ynced at: 2023-03-07T09:40:48.965Z
• Profile URL: https://github.com/lmterryn

---

GitHub Events

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Last Year

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Committers metadata

Last synced: 3 days ago

Name	Email	Commits
lmterryn	t****e@o****m	205
miro	m****o@s****o	1
BarbaraDh	4****h	1

Committer domains:

• sylvera.io: 1

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Issue and Pull Request metadata

Last synced: 10 days ago

More stats: https://issues.ecosyste.ms/repositories/lookup?url=https://github.com/lmterryn/itsme

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Package metadata

• Total packages: 2
• Total downloads: unknown
• Total dependent packages: 0 (may contain duplicates)
• Total dependent repositories: 0 (may contain duplicates)
• Total versions: 10

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Dependencies

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