........................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ......................................................................................................................... iii List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... viii List of Tables ................................................................................................................................... x List of Abbreviations ...................................................................................................................... xi Chapter 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................ 1 1.2 Research Objectives ............................................................................................................... 5 1.3 Romeo Malette Forest Study Area ......................................................................................... 6 1.4 Thesis Outline ...................................................................................................................... 10 Chapter 2 Literature Review ........................................................................................................ 11 2.1 Forest Ecology and Classification Systems ......................................................................... 11 2.1.1 Ecological Land Classification (ELC) .......................................................................... 11 2.1.2 The Characteristics Leading to Landform Development .............................................. 14 2.1.2.1 Climatic Trends in Ontario .................................................................................... 16 2.1.2.2 Geology of Northern Ontario ................................................................................. 17 2.1.2.3 Soil Development in Northern Ontario .................................................................. 19 2.1.3 The Current ELC System .............................................................................................. 23 2.1.4 Ontario Ecological Land Classification (OELC) .......................................................... 26 2.2 Remote Sensing Technology and Surface Modelling .......................................................... 28 2.2.1 LiDAR Technology ...................................................................................................... 28 2.2.2 LiDAR Accuracy and Errors......................................................................................... 30 2.2.2.1 Instrument Positional Error .................................................................................... 31 2.2.2.2 Classification Processing Error .............................................................................. 32 2.2.2.3 Influence of Ground Cover Type ........................................................................... 34 2.2.3 Spatial Interpolation ...................................................................................................... 36 2.2.4 Delaunay Triangulation and Triangular Irregular Networks (TINs) ............................. 39 2.2.5 Depression Removal Algorithms .................................................................................. 42 2.3 Terrain Modelling for Ecological Applications ................................................................... 45 2.3.1 Spatial Modelling .......................................................................................................... 45