Identification of even- and uneven-aged forest stand structures using freely available national airborne laser scanning data on National Forest Inventory plots in spruce-beech-fir dominated regionsPintar, Anže Martin (Avtor) vertical heterogeneitynational forest inventorycanopy height modelvoxelsuneven- aged forestseven-aged forestsEven-aged forests are still predominant across Europe. However, due to the higher resilience and resistance of uneven-aged forests to disturbances and climate change, their proportion is expected to increase both in Europe and globally. The primary objective of this study is to demonstrate the feasibility of distinguishing between uneven- and even-aged forest stand structures on National Forest Inventory (NFI) permanent sample plots solely based on freely available, national airborne low-resolution laser scanning data, without the use of field-based estimates or measurements. Forest structure was described and classified based on canopy closure, dominant height, and canopy height diversity derived from the canopy height model (CHM) and voxel-based metrics calculated from the point cloud. Comparable results were obtained using both approaches for assessing forest structural diversity: canopy height diversity derived from the canopy height model (CHDCHM) and from voxel-based metrics (CHDV). However, differences in vertical diversity between uneven- and even-aged stands were more pronounced when using CHM-based metrics. Therefore, we conclude that in areas with low-density laser scanning data, CHM analysis represents a more suitable method for evaluating the vertical heterogeneity of forest stand structures. The CHDCHM values were estimated at 1.71 for uneven-aged forests, with values of 1.24 and 1.54 observed in mature even-aged forests. In comparison, CHDV values were 2.50 for uneven-aged forests, while mature even-aged forests showed values of 2.18 and 2.24.20262026-02-26 13:45:36Znanstveno delo27876UDK: 630*52ISSN pri članku: 2624-893XDOI: 10.3389/ffgc.2026.1653321COBISS_ID: 269786627sl