220-303 Forest Inventory

220-213 Trees and Forests; 207-203 Techniques of Resource Assessment.

The subject gives quantitative understanding of the role of inventory (forest and tree measurement and assessment) in planning the management of native and plantation forest resources. It includes planning and execution of a forest assessment, and processing of assessment data to a form suitable for input into forest management. Content includes:

• the importance of forest assessment, and the role of inventories in native forest and plantation resource planning for both wood and non-wood values;

• the use of standard equipment to estimate tree and stand parameters such as diameter, basal area, height, standing volume, bark and crown, stem geometry, stem analysis and defects;

• estimation of timber yields, and the effect of site productivity and stand density;

• the sources of assessment errors and their significance;

• use of remote sensing and GIS in forest inventories and project management;

• registration and rectification of maps and aerial photographs of forested areas;

• project planning, logistic, costs, and implementation issues, project management tools;

• advanced statistical techniques of design and sampling for inventory and research.

One three-hour end-of-semester examination (50%), an essay (up to 1500 words, 20%), a group field inventory exercise (30%).

• Lilles and Kiefer, Remote Sensing and Image Interpretation.
• S A Aranoff, Geographic Information Systems: A Management Perspective.
• P A Burrough, Principles of Geographical Information Systems for Land Resources Assessment.
• M S Philip, Measuring Trees and Forests.