Treesearch

Almost all relevant data in forestry databases arise from either field measurement or model prediction. In either case, these values have some amount of uncertainty that is often overlooked when doing analyses. In this study, the uncertainty associated with both measured and predicted data was quantified for upper-stem diameter at 5.27 m. This uncertainty was propagated through a tree taper model into predictions of individual-tree volume. The effects of uncertainty on individual-tree volume predictions and population estimates of total volume were assessed. Generally, when little or no...

The national forest inventory (NFI) of the United States of America (USA) is conducted by the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) programme of the U.S. Forest Service, an agency of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The FIA programme has been in continuous existence since 1928 and is the only organisation that collects, compiles, archives, analyses, and publishes state, regional, and national forest information on all ownerships of forest land in the USA. The history of the programme is documented in numerous publications including LaBau et al. (2007), Gregoire (1992) and Yan Hooser et...

Key message. The effects on large-area volume estimates of uncertainty in individual tree volume model predictions were negligible when using simple random sampling estimators for large-area estimation, but non-negligible when using stratified estimators which reduced the effects of sampling variability. Context. Forest inventory estimates of tree volume for large areas are typically calculated by adding model predictions of volumes for individual trees at the plot level and calculating the per unit area mean over plots. The uncertainty in the model predictions is generally ignored with...

Forest ecosystems provide wood and many other services that contribute significantly to human well-being at local, national, and global scales. These contributions include the conservation of soil and water resources, mitigation of the effects of global climate change, conservation of biological diversity, improvement of urban living conditions, protection of natural and cultural heritage, subsistence resources for many rural and indigenous communities, generation of employment, as well as recreational opportunities (MEA 2005). Due to the importance of forests for humanity, the evolution...

The Global Forest Observations Initiative (GFOI) was established by GEO in 2011, to assist countries to produce reliable, consistent reports on change in forest cover and forest use, and associated anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions and removals.

For purposes of greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) accounting, estimation of deforestation area in tropical countries often relies on satellite remote sensing in the absence of National Forest Inventories (NFI). Gabon has recently launched a National Climate Action Plan with the intent of establishing a National Forest Monitoring System that meets the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 2006 guidelines for the Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU) sector. The assessment of areas of forest cover and forest cover change is essential to estimate activity data, defined as...

We report on the operational use of remotely sensed data by national forest inventory (NFI) programmes in 45 countries representing approximately 65% of theworld's forest area. The analysis is based on responses to a questionnaire prepared under the auspices of COST Action FP1001 "Improving Data and Information on the Potential Supply of Wood Resources: A European Approach from Multisource National Forest Inventories (USEWOOD)". Responses were received from NFI remote sensing experts from both European and non-European countries. Three major conclusions were drawn from the study: (1)...

In May 2014, the Member States of the United Nations adopted Resolution 23/1 on “strengthening a targeted crime prevention and criminal justice response to combat illicit trafficking in forest products, including timber.” The resolution promotes the development of tools and technologies that can be used to combat the illicit trafficking of timber. Stopping illegal logging worldwide could substantially increase revenue from the legal trade in timber and halt the associated environmental degradation, but law enforcement and timber traders themselves are hampered by the lack of available...

Carbon accounting is at the heart of efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change. One approach for estimating population parameters for live tree stem carbon entails three primary steps: (1) construction of an individual tree, allometric carbon model, (2) application of the model to tree-level data for a probability sample of plots, and (3) use of a probability-based (design-based) estimator of mean carbon per unit area for a population of interest. Compliance with the IPCC good practice guidance requires satisfaction of two criteria, one related to minimizing bias and one related to...

Remotely sensed data have been widely used in recent years for mapping and estimating biomass. However, the characterization of the uncertainty of mapped or estimated biomass in previous studies was either based on adhoc approaches (e.g., using model fitting statistics such root mean square errors derived frompurposive samples) or mostly limited to the analysis of mean biomass for the whole study area. This study proposed a novel uncertainty analysis method that can characterize biomass uncertainty across multiple spatial scales and multiple spatial resolutions. The uncertainty analysis...