PRO Production

Workflow-grade Pro analysis with audit-ready outputs.

workflow pro

## Workflow Narrative

Forestry Structure and Biomass Analysis

### Problem It Solves

Where are high-structure and high-biomass stands concentrated, and how confident are those estimates for inventory decisions?

### Who It Is For

- Forest inventory analysts, carbon accounting teams, and silviculture planning groups.

### Primary User

Forestry agencies, carbon-market project developers, and natural resource consultancies.

### What It Does

- Generates canopy structure, vertical class, and biomass-proxy products from LiDAR.
- Produces stand-level structure units and confidence diagnostics for inventory workflows.
- Requires Pro runtime visibility (`include_pro=True`, `tier='pro'` or higher).

### How It Works

- Grids LiDAR to derive canopy-height, density, and ground surfaces, then computes CHM-style structure metrics.
- Classifies canopy structure from adaptive height thresholds and density support into vertical strata classes.
- Scales a terrain-adaptive biomass proxy with configurable cap control.
- Aggregates stand-level structure units and confidence indicators for inventory and monitoring.
- Indicative formula: biomass_proxy ~= g(canopy_height, density_support, structure_class, terrain_relief), clamped by biomass_cap.

### Why It Wins

- Combines structure classes, biomass proxy, and stand-unit outputs in one reproducible workflow suitable for operational reporting.

### Typical Buying Trigger

Inventory refresh, carbon-baseline updates, or stand treatment planning needs consistent structure and biomass surfaces.

### Typical Presets

- fast for regional reconnaissance.
- balanced for default inventory support.
- strict for conservative structure/banding and confidence interpretation.
- Operational controls:
- profile: fast | balanced | strict.
- terrain_adaptation: off | moderate | strong.
- biomass_cap: bounds biomass-proxy scaling for predictable downstream comparisons.

## Inputs

Parameter | Optional | Description
--- | --- | ---
input (LAS/LAZ or Lidar) | no | Input LiDAR source used to derive forest structure and biomass products.
profile: fast | balanced | strict | no | Operational profile controlling sensitivity and QA strictness.
resolution | yes | Output raster resolution, default 2.0.
stand_block_cells | yes | Stand aggregation block size in cells, default 12.
biomass_cap | yes | Upper bound applied to biomass proxy estimates, default 25.0.
terrain_adaptation: off | moderate | strong | yes | Biomass terrain-adaptation mode, default moderate.

## Outputs

Parameter | Type | Description
--- | --- | ---
canopy_height_metrics | GeoTIFF | Canopy height metrics raster for forestry structure interpretation.
vertical_structure_class | GeoTIFF | Categorical vertical-structure class raster.
stand_structure_units | GeoPackage | Vector stand structure units for reporting and management.
biomass_proxy | GeoTIFF | Biomass proxy raster derived from structural LiDAR metrics.
confidence | GeoTIFF | Confidence layer quantifying reliability of modeled outputs.
summary | JSON | Machine-readable summary report containing run metadata, QA diagnostics, and key metrics.
html_report | HTML | Human-readable customer-facing report generated from the summary contract for stakeholder review and QA traceability.

## Python Example

    import whitebox_workflows as wbw

    wbe = wbw.WbEnvironment(include_pro=True, tier="pro")

    lidar = wbw.Lidar("data/forest_points.laz")

    height, vclass, stands, biomass, conf, summary = wbe.forestry_structure_and_biomass_intelligence(
        input=lidar,
        profile="balanced",
        resolution=2.0,
        stand_block_cells=12,
        biomass_cap=30.0,
        terrain_adaptation="moderate",
        output_prefix="output/forestry_structure",
    )

    print(height)
    print(vclass)
    print(stands)
    print(biomass)
    print(conf)
    print(summary)

## License Notice

Use of this function requires a license for Whitebox Workflows Professional (WbW-Pro). Please visit www.whiteboxgeo.com to purchase a license.

## Project Links

WbW Homepage User Manual Support WbW