Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 73 (2010) 1–6

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Computers and Electronics in Agriculture

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compag

A laser scanning system for estimating wind velocity reduction

through tree windbreaks
K.H. Lee a , R. Ehsani a,∗ , W.S. Castle b
a
University of Florida, IFAS, Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, Citrus Research and Education Center, 700 Experiment Station Road, Lake Alfred, FL 33850, USA
b
University of Florida, IFAS, Department of Horticultural Sciences, Citrus Research and Education Center, 700 Experiment Station Road, Lake Alfred, FL 33850, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The performance of trees as windbreaks is principally determined by their geometric characteristics.
Received 22 October 2009 This paper reports the development of a laser scanning system to measure tree geometric characteristics
Received in revised form 22 March 2010 on-the-go and its use to estimate percent wind velocity reduction in a windbreak. The laser scanning
Accepted 26 March 2010
system was built by mounting a laser sensor, a global positioning system (GPS) receiver, and a notebook
computer on a test vehicle. A windbreak was established by arranging a set of large potted trees in
Keywords:
a pattern that provided two porosities for wind velocity measurements (windbreaks I and II). Winds
Canopy volume
generated by a blower at low and high wind velocities were directed at the centers of the tree windbreaks.
Canopy density
Laser scanner
Wind velocities were measured using a vane anemometer in four areas of the windbreaks, both on the
Windbreak windward and leeward sides. Percent wind velocity reductions between the windward and leeward sides
Wind velocity reduction were calculated. The laser scanning system measured the tree canopy geometric characteristics in the
same areas where the wind velocities were collected.
The linear correlations between the tree canopy geometric characteristics and the percent wind velocity
reductions were analyzed. In tree windbreak I, the highest correlation coefficient (r) of 0.97 (root mean
square deviation – RMSD = 3.61%) and 0.96 (RMSD = 3.29%) were obtained at the low (<16 m s−1 ) and high
(<20 m s−1 ) wind velocity conditions, respectively. On the other hand, in tree windbreak II, the highest r
values of 0.93 (RMSD = 4.59%) and 0.98 (RMSD = 2.26%) were estimated at the low (<12 m s−1 ) and high
(<18 m s−1 ) wind velocity conditions, respectively.
© 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
A windbreak is any object or structure that intercepts the wind
and reduces its velocity (Cornelis and Gabriels, 2005). Windbreaks
can be classified into two groups: artificial barriers made of syn-
thetic screen and natural or living barriers such as plant or tree
fences. In agriculture, windbreaks have been used to shelter crops
and animals from wind damage and to protect soils from wind
erosion. Windbreaks reduce wind velocity and alter the charac-
teristics of airflow around them, inducing microclimate changes in
the surrounding crops and soils (Vigiak et al., 2003). Therefore, crop
development and yield can be modified by windbreaks.
There have been many studies on the effects of windbreaks
on crop growth and productivity under field conditions. Sun and
Dickinson (1997) reported that windbreaks increased potato height
and number of leaves and raised yield up to 7.7%. Potato plants close
to windbreaks yielded more potatoes than those at further posi-
tions. Sudmeyer et al. (2002) showed that the yields of wheat, lupin,
∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 863 956 1151x1228; fax: +1 863 956 4631.
E-mail address: ehsani@ufl.edu (R. Ehsani).
and mungbean inside wind shelters were 78–120% higher than
those of unsheltered crops, depending on seasonal condition and
crop species. The sheltered crops tended to develop more leaf area
than unsheltered crops. Campi et al. (2009) analyzed the benefits of
windbreaks on the water requirements and yield of wheat plants.
The water use efficiency was a maximum of 1.15 kg m−3 within the
distance of 18 times the windbreaks height and 0.70 kg m−3 in the
area not influenced by the windbreaks. Wheat production within
the area protected by the windbreaks was higher than that without
the windbreak protection.
The performance of a windbreak for wind velocity reduction
is largely determined by its porosity or permeability to air flow.
Porosity is closely related to windbreak design and tree geomet-
ric characteristics such as tree spacing, tree height, width, shape,
surface area, and volume (Schwartz et al., 1995; Vigiak et al., 2003;
Cornelis and Gabriels, 2005).
Tree geometric characteristics can be measured by several sens-
ing technologies including a laser scanner which is accurate and
quick. Laser scanners employ a pulsed laser signal and measure the
time between the transmission and reception of the signal which
is proportional to the distance between the sensor and the tar-
get point. The laser pulse is diverted sequentially with a specific

0168-1699/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.compag.2010.03.007
2 K.H. Lee et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 73 (2010) 1–6
Fig. 1. Test vehicle equipped with experimental devices.
angular interval using a rotating mirror. Thus, a fan-shaped, two-
dimensional scan is made of the surrounding area. A laser beam
has a very small divergence angle and a high energy density, and
hence can travel a long distance in a straight line while maintain-
ing a narrow beam (Lee and Ehsani, 2009). Wei and Salyani (2004)
developed a laser sensor for potential use in the measurement of
tree canopy height, width, and volume. The measurement accura-
cies of height and volume were 97% with fixed-height polyvinyl
chloride pipes and 95% with a rectangular box. Zande et al. (2006)
showed that a laser scanner could depict the structural characteris-
tics of an artificial tree that was in a complicated organization. Lee
and Ehsani (2008) compared the performance of two laser scanners
that have potential for agricultural applications. The measurement
performance of the scanners was different based on the character-
istic of target material and the scanning resolution. Lee and Ehsani
(2009) built a measurement system by mounting a laser sensor on
a test vehicle for the estimation of tree geometric characteristics
on-the-go. The measurement errors for tree canopy height, width,
surface area, and volume were 0.37%, 0.01%, 1.99%, and 5.96% under
field conditions, respectively.
Proper windbreak design requires a knowledge of the charac-
teristics of the trees selected which determine spacing, and thus,
porosity. Being able to quickly and accurately measure wind veloc-
ity reduction in the field is important for managing and establishing
windbreaks. Devices to measure tree geometric characteristics and
the relationship between tree geometric characteristics and wind
velocity reduction through tree windbreaks have not been studied
thoroughly. Therefore, the objectives of this study were to develop a
laser scanning system for the measurement of tree geometric char-
acteristics on-the-go and to estimate wind velocity reduction based
on those measurements.
2. Materials and methods
2.1. Laser scanning system
Experimental devices were installed on a John Deere Gator util-
ity vehicle for experiments (Fig. 1). A laser scanner (LMS200, SICK
Inc., Germany) was mounted on a stand that was fixed in the rear
of the vehicle at 1.3 m above the ground. The laser sensor scanned
a target object vertically. It has two selectable maximum measure-
ment distances (8 m with an error of ±20 mm and 80 m with an
error of ±40 mm), two selectable scanning ranges (40–140◦ and
0–180◦ ), and three selectable angular resolutions (0.25◦ , 0.5◦ , and
1◦ ). During the experiments, the LMS200 was operated at a max-
Fig. 2. Windbreak formed by assembling three large cypress trees growing in 240 L
containers. The trees in their containers were placed in a shallow trench during wind
velocity measurement. The distances are in centimeters.
imum measurement distance of 8 m and scanned a target object
in a range of 40–140◦ with an angular resolution of 0.25◦ . A global
positioning system (GPS) receiver (AgGPS® 132, Trimble Navigation
Ltd., Sunnyvale, CA) was placed on the roof of the vehicle occu-
pant protective system to measure the travel speed of the vehicle
(i.e., the travel speed of the laser sensor). The output rate of the
GPS receiver was 10 Hz. The laser sensor and GPS receiver were
interfaced with a notebook computer via a serial-to-USB adapter
(2403, Sealevel Systems Inc., Liberty, SC) at the baud rates of 500
and 19.2 kbps, respectively. An interface program was written using
LabVIEW (ver. 8.2, National Instruments Co., Austin, TX.) to collect
the data from the sensors. The laser measurements at each vertical
segment were recorded along with the travel speed of the vehicle
obtained from the GPS receiver and the elapsed travel time of the
vehicle.
2.2. Tree windbreaks
For the experiments, tree windbreaks were formed by placing
Arizona Cypress (Cupressus arizonica var. arizonica) trees in 240 L
containers in a straight shallow trench for stability in an open area
(Fig. 2). For windbreak I, there were three trees in the trench and the
distance between the tree trunks was 155 cm. At this distance, the
canopies of the adjacent trees touched each other and the over-
all height and width of windbreak I was about 350 and 450 cm,
respectively. In windbreak II, there were four trees in the trench,
but spaced closer together at 112 cm between trunks. The canopies
of adjacent trees overlapped and hence the windbreak porosity was
lower. To indicate the start and end of the windbreaks, two wooden
boards with a width of 14 cm and a height of 265 cm were erected
on the left and right hand sides of the windbreaks on the tree-row
line. The distance between the boards was 652 cm.
Wind was generated by a blower operated with a 400 Hp diesel
engine. Wind velocity was changed by adjusting the engine speed.
The diameter of the wind outlet of the blower was 147 cm and the
center of the wind outlet was at 213 cm above the ground. The
distance between the tree-row line and the blower was 1275 cm.
The wind generated by the blower was directed at the centers of
the windbreaks.
 K.H. Lee et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 73 (2010) 1–6 3

2.3. Wind velocity measurement

The velocity of wind generated by the blower was measured

using a digital vane anemometer (model DAF80PW, National Safety
Products, Inc., Westminster, MD) with a range of 0.4–35.0 m s−1
with a resolution of 0.1 m s−1 . Wind velocity data were transmit-
ted via a wireless RS232 transceiver (model HPS-120, HandyWave,
Korea) to a notebook computer. The anemometer was placed on
the windward side or the same side as the blower. It was located
at position 1 (Fig. 2), 249 cm from the wooden board on the left
hand side, 120 cm away from the tree-row line, and 150 cm above
the ground. After collecting data at position 1, the anemometer was
moved 50 cm along the tree line to position 2 and likewise to posi-
tions 3 and 4. Wind velocity was also measured at positions 1 , 2 ,
3 , and 4 on the leeward or opposite side of the windbreak from the
blower. In windbreak I, position 1 (1 ) and position 4 (4 ) were near
the edge between adjacent trees, while positions 2 (2 ) and 3 (3 )
were near the middle of trees. In windbreak II, position 1 (1 ) and
position 3 (3 ) were close to the middle of trees, whereas positions
2 (2 ) and 4 (4 ) were close to the edge between adjacent trees.

2.4. Experimental method

The laser sensor mounted on the test vehicle scanned wind-

break I on the windward side, moving along the tree-row direction.
A straight line was made with a plastic rope (13 m length) on the
ground to guide the vehicle driver. The ground surface was rel-
atively level in the travel path of the vehicle. The intended travel
speed of the vehicle was 1.0 m s−1 ; the actual travel speed was mea-
sured using the GPS at 10 Hz. Scanning of windbreaks I and II was
replicated five times. The blower was turned-off when the trees
were scanned. Artificial winds of low and high velocities were gen-
erated by the blower at the engine speeds of 700 and 1000 rpm,
respectively. The wind velocities were measured at positions 1,
2, 3, 4 on the windward side, and positions 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 on the
leeward side using the anemometer. Twenty wind velocity mea-
surements were collected at each position for 30 s. Percent wind
velocity reduction between the positions on the windward and
leeward sides was calculated using Eq. (1). The experiments were
conducted on a sunny day with an average temperature of about
23 ◦ C and wind velocity of less than 1 m s−1 .

Percent wind velocity reduction (%)

wind velocity difference between windward and leeward sides

= × 100
wind velocity on a windward side
(1)

2.5. Algorithms for measurement of tree geometric characteristics

The schematic view of the laser scanning of windbreak I on-the-

go and scanning illustration of a single scan segment are shown in
Fig. 3(a) and (b), respectively. In the figures, the x, y, z axes present
the tree-row line, the horizontal path of the laser beam towards the
windbreak, and the vertical line on the tree-row line, respectively.
The i (=1· · ·m) and j (=1· · ·f· · ·g· · ·n) indices show a scanned segment
of the windbreak on the x axis and the laser scanning spot on the Fig. 3. (a) Laser scanning of tree windbreak I on-the-go, (b) illustration of the scan
z axis at each segment, which is directly related to the consecutive of the ith segment in the y–z plane, and (c) laser scanning points of a measured area
measurement angle of the laser sensor, respectively. While scan- in the y–z plane. The distances are in centimeters.
ning the windbreak, the distance (D) between the laser sensor travel
line and the tree-row line, and the height (H) of the laser above the
ground were maintained at 500 and 130 cm, respectively. The laser
sensor measured a distance (dij ) to a spot (Pij ) on the tree canopy
at a scanning angle ( ij ). The spot in the polar coordinate plane was
transformed to a point in the Cartesian coordinate plane using Eq.
4 K.H. Lee et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 73 (2010) 1–6

Table 1
Measurements of tree canopy geometric characteristics in several areas of large potted trees assembled into linear windbreaks for purpose of wind velocity reduction
measurement: windbreak I with trees spaced 155 cm trunk to trunk.

Tree canopy geometric characteristics Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 4

Meana CV (%) Meana CV (%) Meana CV (%) Meana CV (%)

Total length between laser points (cm) 1613.4 7.0 2391.8 12.3 2528.1 15.8 2003.4 10.5
Std. dev. of the lengths (cm) 63.7 8.2 88.9 14.1 100.1 13.7 80.2 14.8
Surface area (cm2 ) 854.8 16.8 1194.3 13.5 1280.6 13.7 1084.8 8.8
Area of tree canopy (cm2 ) 9990.9 16.4 12544.5 14.8 16397.7 14.9 16945.9 15.9
Area by high-low peaks (cm2 ) 5911.3 8.1 8453.7 11.0 8727.3 13.0 6580.9 12.8
Volume of tree canopy (cm3 ) 5284.3 19.3 6148.0 9.7 8293.4 5.0 9128.5 14.4
Volume by high-low peaks (cm3 ) 3132.1 17.8 4258.5 10.8 4506.3 14.3 3572.9 8.5
a
Mean values of five replications. The units in the characteristic column describe the mean values.

(2). be found in Lee and Ehsani (2009).

g 
      
yij D dij sin ij Li = (yij+1 − yij )2 + (zij+1 − zij )2 (3)
= − (2)
zij H dij cos ij j=f

The tree canopy geometric characteristics calculated in each

Only when the zij value was between 125 cm (j = f) and 175 cm
(j = g + 1), the point was projected on the Cartesian coordinate plane
(Fig. 3(c)).
The timer in the interface program started when a laser beam
hit a board on the left hand side. The elapsed travel distance of the
test vehicle was calculated by multiplying the elapsed travel time
and the travel speed of the vehicle (S). As the elapsed travel dis-
tance reached 224 cm (Fig. 3(a)), the scanned segment was marked
with the flag 1 in the laser data set to indicate the start of the area
1. Flags 2, 3, 4, and 5 were used to mark the start of areas 2, 3,
4 and the end of area 4, respectively, at an increment of 50 cm
distance. Thus, the laser-scanned data sets of areas 1, 2, 3, and 4
(each 50 cm × 50 cm) were only considered for determining tree
geometric characteristics.
For each segment, the total length (Li ) between adjacent points
in the Cartesian coordinate plane (Eq. (3)) as shown in Fig. 3(c),
which indicates the length of tree canopy profile, and the stan-
dard deviation of the lengths, which indicates the roughness of tree
canopy profile, were calculated. A polygon was made of the laser
points and z axis. The area of the polygon (Ai ), which indicates the
amount of tree materials, was calculated using a “polygon” func-
tion provided by MATLAB® (ver 7.1, The MathWorks Inc., Natick,
MA). Using the “peak detection” algorithm, the high and low peaks
of the points based on the y value were selected. The areas cov-
ered by the high peaks (in z axis) and the low peaks (in z axis) were
obtained, respectively, and the difference between the two areas,
which indicates the porosity of a tree, was calculated. The surface
area was calculated by multiplying Li , S, and the time interval (t)
between two consecutive vertical scans. The volume was obtained
by the product of Ai , S, and t. More detailed description of estimat-
ing the surface area and volume from the laser measurements can
area were: (i) the summation of the total lengths between the laser
points in every segments, (ii) the summation of the standard devi-
ations of the lengths in every segments, (iii) the surface area of
tree canopy, (iv) the summation of the polygon areas in every seg-
ments, (v) the summation of the areas occupied by the high-low
peaks of the laser points in every segments, (vi) the volume of tree
canopy, and (vii) the volume occupied by the high-low peaks of
the laser points. It was expected that the tree canopy geometric
characteristics could indicate the porosity of a tree and the amount
of tree materials that directly affected wind velocity reduction.
These features of tree canopy geometric characteristics and the
linear correlations between the tree canopy geometric characteris-
tics measurements and the percent wind velocity reductions were
analyzed using MATLAB® .
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Measurement of tree canopy geometric characteristics
The tree canopy geometric characteristics measurements varied
based on the area scanned (Tables 1 and 2). The largest mea-
surements were observed at areas 3 and 4 in windbreaks I and
II, respectively, where the most significant percent wind veloc-
ity reductions were found. It was believed that the tree canopy
geometric characteristics measurements might be related to the
amount of tree materials such as branches and leaves. As the
amount of tree materials was denser, the flow of wind in the
trees would be disturbed, resulting in gradually dissipation of wind
energy, and hence greater reduction of the wind velocity through
the trees.

Table 2
Measurements of tree canopy geometric characteristics in several areas of large potted trees assembled into linear windbreaks for purpose of wind velocity reduction
measurement: windbreak II with trees spaced 112 cm trunk to trunk.

Tree canopy geometric characteristics Area 1 Area 2 Area 3 Area 4

a a a
Mean CV (%) Mean CV (%) Mean CV (%) Meana CV (%)

Total length between laser points (cm) 1839.3 12.7 1703.8 7.0 1946.6 15.2 2129.1 12.8
Std. dev. of the lengths (cm) 71.0 14.2 64.0 9.5 75.5 15.7 83.0 12.0
Surface area (cm2 ) 973.3 11.0 889.0 10.5 1006.9 13.1 1247.5 8.4
Area of tree canopy (cm2 ) 14663.6 10.5 14460.7 4.5 15989.0 13.4 15609.8 13.4
Area by high-low peaks (cm2 ) 6405.2 8.4 6166.5 6.6 6778.6 18.1 8083.5 14.7
Volume of tree canopy (cm3 ) 7724.4 10.0 7502.9 8.0 8438.3 10.0 9041.5 10.9
Volume by high-low peaks (cm3 ) 3424.3 7.0 3169.3 8.4 3568.4 16.5 4680.7 13.0
a
Mean values of five replications. The units in the characteristic column describe the mean values.
 K.H. Lee et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 73 (2010) 1–6 5

tively, and they were at anemometer position 2. The largest percent

wind velocity reductions were found at position 3 with 54.86%
and 40.09% at the low and high wind velocity conditions, respec-
tively. The averages of the percent wind velocity reductions at the
low and high wind velocity conditions were 41.32% and 21.95%,
respectively.
In windbreak II, the highest wind velocities on the windward
side were at positions 3 and 4 (Fig. 4(b)) than at positions 1 and
2. This might be due to the shift of the wind blower towards the
right direction that might have occurred during the experiments,
resulting in wind flux targeting towards positions 3 and 4. The high-
est wind velocities on the windward side of windbreak II were at
position 3 with 12 and 18 m s−1 at the low and high wind velocity
conditions, respectively. The largest percent wind velocity reduc-
tions were 76.34% and 58.54% at the low and high wind velocity
conditions, respectively, at position 4. The averages of the percent
wind velocity reductions at the low and high wind velocity con-
ditions were 54.26% and 50.31%, respectively. The percent wind
velocity reductions were larger through windbreak II than those
through windbreak I. This was expected because the porosity of
windbreak II was lower than that of windbreak I.
For windbreak II, the wind velocity measurement at position 2
on the leeward side at the high wind velocity condition was smaller
than the wind velocities at positions 1 and 3. Although the experi-
ments were carried out on a calm day with wind velocity of less than
1 m s−1 , there was a sudden gust of wind in the field occasionally.
During the wind velocity measurement at position 2 on the lee-
ward side at the high wind velocity condition, a gust of wind might
have hit the vane anemometer and the rotation of the vane might
have been interrupted. This might have caused the wind velocity
measurement to be small.

3.3. Correlation between tree canopy geometric characteristics

and percent wind velocity reductions

In windbreak I (Table 3), the highest correlation coefficient (r) at

Fig. 4. Wind velocities measured at each anemometer position on the windward
and leeward sides of (a) tree windbreak I and (b) tree windbreak II.
3.2. Wind velocity reduction
In general, the wind velocities at the center positions over the
windbreak I were higher than those at the outer positions (Fig. 4(a)).
This might be because the artificial wind generated by the blower
was directed towards the center of the windbreak. The highest
wind velocities on the windward side of windbreak I were 16 and
20 m s−1 at the low and high wind velocity conditions, respec-
the low wind velocity condition was 0.97 (RMSD = 3.61%) with the
area of tree canopy. At the high wind velocity condition, the high-
est r value was 0.96 (RMSD = 3.29%) with the standard deviation of
the total lengths between laser points. In windbreak II (Table 4), at
the low wind velocity condition, the tree canopy geometric char-
acteristics except for the area of tree canopy showed a significant
correlation with the percent wind velocity reductions. The highest
r value at the low wind velocity condition was 0.93 (RMSD = 4.59%)
with the volume occupied by the high-low peaks of the laser points.
The r values at the high wind velocity condition were less than 0.18.
It was assumed that the wind velocity data at position 2 on the
leeward side at the high wind velocity condition was an outlier.
The r values were greatly improved when the laser data and wind
velocity data of area 2 at the high wind velocity condition were
not included in the correlation model. The highest r value was 0.98
(RMSD = 2.26%) for the volume of tree canopy.

Table 3
Correlations between the tree canopy geometric characteristics measurements and percent wind velocity reduction in windbreak I.

Tree canopy geometric characteristics Low wind speed High wind speed
a
r RMSD (%) r RMSDa (%)

Total length between laser points 0.7292 10.33 0.9024 5.44

Std. dev. of the lengths 0.8066 8.92 0.9655 3.29
Surface area 0.8260 8.51 0.9388 4.35
Area of tree canopy 0.9709 3.61 0.7857 7.81
Area by high-low peaks 0.5743 12.36 0.8290 7.06
Volume of tree canopy 0.9188 5.96 0.6756 9.31
Volume by high-low peaks 0.6659 11.26 0.8901 5.76
a
RMSD: root mean square deviation.
6 K.H. Lee et al. / Computers and Electronics in Agriculture 73 (2010) 1–6

Table 4
Correlations between the tree canopy geometric characteristics measurements and percent wind velocity reduction in windbreak II.

Tree canopy geometric characteristics Low wind speed High wind speed
a
r RMSD (%) r RMSDa (%)

Total length between laser points 0.7659 8.26 0.0381 (0.9354)b 16.11 (4.88)b
Std. dev. of the lengths 0.7313 8.76 0.0938 (0.9384) 16.05 (4.77)
Surface area 0.9024 5.53 0.0706 (0.8117) 16.08 (8.07)
Area of tree canopy 0.3128 12.20 0.0286 (0.8296) 16.11 (7.71)
Area by high-low peaks 0.9193 5.05 0.1790 (0.8664) 15.86 (6.90)
Volume of tree canopy 0.7661 8.25 0.1321 (0.9865) 15.98 (2.26)
Volume by high-low peaks 0.9339 4.59 0.1409 (0.8072) 15.96 (8.15)
a
RMSD: root mean square deviation.
b
Values without including data from the area 2 in the model.

The laser measurements collected on the windward side were
only used to show the relationship between the tree canopy geo-
metric characteristics and the percent wind velocity reductions,
assuming that the trees were generally symmetric. Therefore,
under different experimental conditions in which the trees of wind-
breaks are asymmetric, the trees should be scanned both on the
windward and leeward sides for more accurate measurements of
the tree canopy geometric characteristics. The pattern of the tree
canopy geometric characteristics and the behavior of the perme-
ability of air flow may be different according to the variety of trees.
Therefore, more experiments needs to be conducted on different
varieties of trees to develop a universal relationship between tree
canopy geometric characteristics and percent wind velocity reduc-
tion.
4. Conclusions
A laser scanning system for the measurement of the tree
canopy geometric characteristics was developed and the measure-
ments were used to estimate the percent wind velocity reductions
through the tree windbreaks. Most of the tree canopy geometric
characteristics showed a good correlation with the percent wind
velocity reductions. In windbreak I, the highest r values at the low
(<16 m s−1 ) and high (<20 m s−1 ) wind velocity conditions were
0.97 (RMSD = 3.61%) and 0.96 (RMSD = 3.29%), respectively. While
in windbreak II, the highest r values at the low (<12 m s−1 ) and high
(<18 m s−1 ) wind velocity conditions were 0.93 (RMSD = 4.59%)
and 0.98 (RMSD = 2.26%), respectively. The performance of the
laser scanning system for the estimation of percent wind velocity
reduction can be different based on varieties of trees because the
characteristics of the tree canopy parameters and the behavior of
the permeability of air flow through the trees can be different. This
aspect needs to be addressed while developing the laser scanning
system for a particular application.
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