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Leaf water content (LWC) plays an important role in agriculture and forestry management. It can be used to assess drought conditions and wildfire susceptibility. Terrestrial laser scanner (TLS) data have been widely used in forested environments for retrieving geometrically-based biophysical parameters. Recent studies have also shown the potential of using radiometric information (backscatter intensity) for estimating LWC. However, the usefulness of backscatter intensity data has been limited by leaf surface characteristics, and incidence angle effects. To explore the idea of using LiDAR intensity data to assess LWC we normalized (for both angular effects and leaf surface properties) shortwave infrared TLS data (1550 nm). A reflectance model describing both diffuse and specular reflectance was applied to remove strong specular backscatter intensity at a perpendicular angle. Leaves with different surface …