In this editorial, we provide an overview of the content of the special issue on "Terrestrial Laser Scanning". The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together innovative developments and applications of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS), understood in a broad sense. Thus, although most contributions mainly involve the use of laser-based systems, other alternative technologies that also allow for obtaining 3D point clouds for the measurement and the 3D characterization of terrestrial targets, such as photogrammetry, are also considered. The 15 published contributions are mainly focused on the applications of TLS to the following three topics: TLS performance and point cloud processing, applications to civil engineering, and applications to plant characterization.
Keywords: 3D modeling; LiDAR; TLS; Terrestrial laser scanning; canopy characterization; change detection; deformation monitoring; diameter at breast height; olive orchards; photogrammetry; point cloud; point cloud processing; sensor fusion; stochastic models; structural diagnosis; structure from motion; understory structure.