New technology being developed in Hawai'i is making it possible to survey, map and analyze large portions of the state's natural resources with startling new accuracy, a scientist in charge of the project said yesterday.

The techniques being used are so precise they can identify the height of individual trees, determine their rate of growth every day and see how animal life changes in a forest with each foot of height, said Greg Asner, who heads a Carnegie Institution and Stanford University project on the Big Island.

"The technology is allowing us to do amazing new things," Asner told about 150 policymakers, natural resource managers, planners and other professionals at the state Capitol.

Using a combination of laser-based data collection and hyperspectral imaging, Asner's team of airborne researchers is capable of surveying up to 40,000 acres of land a day, and producing 3-D images and almost instantaneous analysis of what's happening far below.

Known as the Carnegie Airborne Observatory, the research team uses several cameras mounted in an aircraft flown over the landscape to produce the 3-D images of the forest canopy, the earth and everything in between.

If linked properly with resource management professionals on the ground, the data have the potential to revolutionize the way the state identifies and responds to changes in its environment, Asner said.

For instance, Asner said, the laser images taken from about 7,000 feet can identify when an invasive species starts to move from a private landowner's plot to an adjoining state forest. Armed with that information, officials could quickly move to contain the spread, even targeting individual trees for elimination.

The lasers also have the ability to see through the dense forest canopies and produce vivid new maps of forest underbrush or underlying geological features, Asner said.

Calling the project one of the most significant technological advances of our generation, Allan Smith, interim head of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the information has potential uses to protect the state's forests, rivers, coral reefs, plants, animals and cultural heritage.

It "is the most significant new tool since the advent of aerial photography a century ago," Smith said.

Unlike similar aerial and satellite-mapping technologies that have been developed by the government or private industry, all of the technology and research done by the Carnegie Institution will be made available to the state and public for free, Asner said.

Asner said he hopes that within five years, the technology and techniques developed by the Carnegie Institution can be copied and operated by the state.

"By helping to get an accurate big picture of what's happening from the air, we'll be able to do a better job of understanding what's going on in the field and responding to it," he said.

Reach Mike Leidemann at mleidemann@honoluluadvertiser.com.