{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,6,18]],"date-time":"2026-06-18T17:44:59Z","timestamp":1781804699724,"version":"3.54.5"},"reference-count":48,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2014,1,6]],"date-time":"2014-01-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1388966400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/3.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Remote Sensing"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Region growing is frequently applied in automated individual tree crown delineation (ITCD) studies. Researchers have developed various rules for initial seed selection and stop criteria when applying the algorithm. However, research has rarely focused on the impact of tree-oriented growth order. This study implemented a  marker-controlled region growing (MCRG) algorithm that considers homogeneity, crown size, and shape using airborne laser scanning (ALS) data, and investigated the impact of three growth orders (i.e., sequential, independent, and simultaneous) on tree crown delineation. The study also investigated the benefit of combining ALS data and orthoimagery in treetop detection at both plot and individual tree levels. The results showed that complementary data from the orthoimagery reduced omission error associated with small trees in the treetop detection procedure and improved treetop detection percentage on a plot level by 2%\u20135% compared to ALS alone. For tree crown delineation, the growth order applied in the MCRG algorithm influenced accuracy. Simultaneous growth yielded slightly higher accuracy (about 2% improvement for producer\u2019s and user\u2019s accuracy) than sequential growth. Independent growth provided comparable accuracy to simultaneous growth in this study by dealing with overlapping pixels among trees according to crown shape. This study provides several recommendations for applying region growing in future ITCD research.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/rs6010555","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2014,1,6]],"date-time":"2014-01-06T11:17:08Z","timestamp":1389007028000},"page":"555-579","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":53,"title":["Impact of Tree-Oriented Growth Order in Marker-Controlled Region Growing for Individual Tree Crown Delineation Using Airborne Laser Scanner (ALS) Data"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"6","author":[{"given":"Zhen","family":"Zhen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Forest Management, School of Forestry, Northeast Forestry University,  Harbin 150040, China"},{"name":"Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management,  College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse,  NY 13210, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lindi","family":"Quackenbush","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Environmental Resources Engineering, College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse, NY 13210, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Lianjun","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Forest and Natural Resources Management,  College of Environmental Science and Forestry, State University of New York, Syracuse,  NY 13210, USA"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2014,1,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"109","DOI":"10.1016\/S0378-1127(99)00278-9","article-title":"Accuracy comparison of various remote sensing data sources in the retrieval of forest stand attributes","volume":"128","author":"Inkinen","year":"2000","journal-title":"For. 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