"Tree Finders-Giant Tree Map Project" will hold a presentation meeting on Dec. 10 at the Chenggong Campus of Chenggong University.

(The picture is provided by the Forestry Research Institute of the Council of Agriculture)

[Reporter Hong Ruiqin/Tainan Report] There are 941 giant trees in Taiwan that are over 65 meters high. Among them, the Taiwan cedar giant tree "Taoshan Shenmu" located in the valley of Xueba Park is 79.1 meters high. It is currently the tallest tree in Taiwan measured physically. How are giant trees measured?

Wang Jikui, a professor of the Department of Surveying and Spatial Informatics at National Cheng Kung University, and Xu Jiajun, an assistant researcher at the Forestry Research Institute of the Council of Agriculture, co-planned the "Tree Finder-Giant Tree Map Project", which has been exploring Taiwan's forests for five years. It will be held in Chengdu on December 10. Hold a presentation of results.

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Wang Jikui pointed out that the climate area suitable for the growth of giant trees in the world only accounts for 2.1% of the land area, but most of the areas are gradually disappearing due to deforestation and climate change. International journals and magazines have warned that giant trees will become extinct in the next few decades. Taiwan’s giant tree growth areas are uniquely endowed , due to the difficulty of transportation, it is not easy to log and harvest. It still maintains a large area of ​​giant tree forest, and it is the world's treasure island of giant trees.

However, measuring the height of giant trees is an insurmountable obstacle for ecological investigators. Because it is difficult to observe the tops of giant trees on the ground, and there are about 950 million trees in Taiwan (data from the Forest Service), investigators cannot measure the height of each tree; "Looking for trees The Human-Giant Tree Map Project” used airborne LiDAR data from all over Taiwan, used a unique giant tree finding algorithm, and cooperated with professionals to identify the location of giant trees in Taiwan. It took 5 years to find a total of 941 trees taller than The 65-meter giant tree is located deep in the Central Mountain Range, and the Lidar images of the Taoshan Shenmu and the Qilan Three Sisters Shenmu were recorded by ground-based Lidar scanners.

The goal of "Tree Hunters-Giant Tree Map Project" is to draw the first national distribution map of giant trees (tree height greater than 65 meters), and display it on an open platform for Chinese people to view, so as to facilitate future scientific research and the promotion of ecotourism , on December 10th, there will be a results presentation meeting, as well as parent-child tree climbing activities, a light-based tree measurement experience camp, to lead the public to experience leisure tree climbing, and to promote tree canopy ecological observation and research. Friends who are interested in giant trees across the country are welcome to sign up join.