Designed to aid readers in gathering the most reliable quantitative information on forests for the least cost. Thoroughly explains the interrelationships between sampling strategies; discusses forestry techniques of efficient tactics; examines new developments in statistics having immediate applications in forestry and describes related developments that should have relevance in the future. Includes practical methods for dealing with forest data such as tree number, height, diameter and marketable wood. Also contains problem sets.
This book presents the state-of-the-art of forest resources assessments and monitoring. It provides links to practical applications of forest and natural resource assessment programs. It offers an overview of current forest inventory systems and discusses forest mensuration, sampling techniques, remote sensing applications, geographic and forest information systems, and multi-resource forest inventory. Attention is also given to the quantification of non-wood goods and services.
Clearly explains the sampling methods associated with the inventory of forest resources. It avoids extensive coverage of theoretical statistics and mathematics in favor of thorough coverage of forest inventory topics for the practitioner.
Forest inventory may be defined as the technique of collecting, evaluating and presenting specified information on forest areas. Because of the generally la~ge extent of forest areas, data are usually collected by sampling, i.e. by making observations on only part of the area of interest. As there are many different sampling methods (e.g. Appendix 1), a choice must first be made as to which method suits the given field and financial circumstances best. On completion of the sampling procedure, the numerous data collected have next to be condensed to manageable representative quantities. Finally, from these quantities, inferences about the situation in the entire forest area are made, preferably accompanied by an indication of their reliability. This book is intended for students who want to know the whepefope of the sampling techniques used in forest inventory. The danger of lack of knowledge is a blind following of instructions and copying statistical formulae, or, even worse, feeding data into a computer loaded with a program that is said to print out the required information. In serious persons, such approaches may leave a feeling of dissatisfaction or even of professional incompetence, be cause of inability to direct or evaluate the procedure critically. If a student tries to improve his or her situation, he/she will find that the few existing forest inventory textbooks, though some with merit, either use confusing statistical symbols or do not adequately cover theoretical principles.
Sound forest management planning requires cost-efficient approaches to optimally utilize given resources. Emphasizing the mathematical and statistical features of forest sampling to assess classical dendrometrical quantities, Sampling Techniques for Forest Inventories presents the statistical concepts and tools needed to conduct a modern for
The forest inventory. Planning principes. Forest and other land-use classification. Inventory sampling design. Aerial photography in forest inventory. Mapas and mapping. Quantity relationships in forest inventory. Personnel and training. Logistical support. Field measurement procedures. Calculation and compilation.
This book has been developed as a forest inventory textbook for students and could also serve as a handbook for practical foresters. We have set out to keep the mathematics in the book at a fairly non-technical level, and therefore, although we deal with many issues that include highly sophisticated methodology, we try to present first and foremost the ideas behind them. For foresters who need more details, references are given to more advanced scientific papers and books in the fields of statistics and biometrics. Forest inventory books deal mostly with sampling and measurement issues, as found here in section I, but since forest inventories in many countries involve much more than this, we have also included material on forestry applications. Most applications nowadays involve remote sensing technology of some sort, so that section II deals mostly with the use of remote sensing material for this purpose. Section III deals with national inventories carried out in different parts of world, and section IV is an attempt to outline some future possibilities of forest inventory methodologies. The editors, Annika Kangas Professor of Forest Mensuration and Management, Department of Forest Resource Management, University of Helsinki. Matti Maltamo Professor of Forest Mensuration, Faculty of Forestry, University of Joensuu. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This book provides a cross-section of all outstanding experience in all fields of tropical forestry under a drastically changing environment induced by climate change. It sheds light on the existing know-how and presents it in a concise and efficient way for the scientist and professional in charge of planning, implementing and evaluating forest resources. The Tropical Forestry Handbook provides proven and/or promising alternative concepts which can be applied to solve organizational, administrative and technical challenges prevailing in the tropics. Presented are state of the art methods in all fields concerning tropical forestry. Emphasize is given to methods which are adapted to- and which safeguard - environmental conditions.
