Long-term strategy for the statistical design of a forest health monitoring system

Abstract

A conceptual framework is given for a broad-scale survey of forest health that accomplishes three objectives: generate descriptive statistics; detect changes in such statistics; and simplify analytical inferences that identify, and possibly establish cause-effect relationships. Our paper discusses the development of sampling schemes to satisfy these three objectives, but without any design restrictions implied by existing sample surveys. A general vision of a desirable future system will increase chances that short-term decisions will lead to better environmental monitoring systems in the long term.

Keywords

forest health monitoring, descriptive statistics, cause-effect relationships

Citation

Schreuder, Hans T.; Czaplewski, Raymond L. 1993. Long-term strategy for the statistical design of a forest health monitoring system. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. 27: 81-94.