Generating synthetic laser scanning data of forests by combining inventory information, a tree point cloud database and an open-source laser scanning simulator [Data to reproduce simulations]

We combine forest inventory information, a tree point cloud database and the open-source laser scanning simulation framework HELIOS++ to generate synthetic laser scanning data of forests. Airborne laser scanning data of six 1-ha plots in temperate, central European forests was simulated and compared to real ALS data of these plots. The synthetic 3D representations of the forest stands were composed of real ALS point clouds of single trees, and, for comparison, simplified tree models with cylindrical stems and spheroidal crowns, both in form of penetrable point clouds and with an impenetrable surface. This dataset includes the HELIOS++ data files to reproduce the simulations: - the height normalized original ALS point clouds - the synthetic forest stand point clouds - soil layers - scene files - survey files