A method for estimating fractal dimension of tree crowns from digital images

A new method for estimating fractal dimension of tree crowns from digital images is presented. Three species of trees, Japanese yew (Taxus cuspidata Sieb & Zucc), Hicks yew (Taxus x media), and eastern white pine (Pinus strobus L.), were studied. Fractal dimensions of Japanese yew and Hicks yew range from 2.26 to 2.70. Fractal dimension of eastern white pine range from 2.14 to 2.43. The difference in fractal dimension between Japanese yew and eastern white pine was statistically significant at 0.05 significance level as was the difference in fractal dimension between Hicks yew and eastern white pine. On average, the greater fractal dimensions of Japanese yew and Hicks yew were possibly related to uniform foliage distribution within their tree crowns. Therefore, fractal dimension may be useful for tree crown structure classification and for indexing tree images.