2016 Vegetation Height Model NFI

Data 'Vegetation Height Model NFI 2016' available on request (christian.ginzler@wsl.ch).

A national vegetation height model was calculated for Switzerland using digital aerial images. We used the stereo aerial images acquired by the Federal Office of Topography swisstopo using the ADS80 sensor to first calculate a digital surface model (DSM) with a very high spatial resolution (1 × 1 m). The DSM was then normalized to obtain the actual vegetation heights using the digital terrain model (DTM) SwissAlti3D based on airborne laser data. Buildings are masked out using the NDVI information of the aerial images to produce a vegetation height model, and to produce a vegetation height model (VHM). Such a model will be calculated in the framework of the Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) with consistent methods and a very high level of detail. For covering the whole of Switzerland, we used summer aerial images from 2011 to 2016.