A Simulation of Image-Assisted Forest Monitoring for National Inventories
نویسنده
چکیده
The efficiency of national forest monitoring efforts can be increased by the judicious incorporation of ancillary data. For instance, a fixed number of ground plots might be used to inform a larger set of annual estimates by observing a smaller proportion of the plots each year while augmenting each annual estimate with ancillary data in order to reduce overall costs while maintaining a desired level of accuracy. Differencing successive geo-rectified remotely sensed images can conceivably provide forest change estimates at a scale and level of accuracy conducive to the improvement of temporally relevant forest attribute estimates. Naturally, the degree of improvement in the desired estimates is highly dependent on the relationships between the spatial-temporal scales of ground plot and remotely sensed observations and the desired spatial-temporal scale of estimation. In this paper, fixed scales of observation for each data source are used to explore the value of three different levels of information available from the remotely sensed image-change estimates. Four populations are simulated and sampled under four sampling error structures. The results show that the image change estimates (ICE) can be used to significantly reduce bias for annual estimates of harvest and mortality and that improved estimation of harvest and mortality can sometimes, but not always, contribute to better estimates of standing volume.
منابع مشابه
Time as a Dimension of the Sample Design in National-Scale Forest Inventories
Historically, the goal of forest inventories has been to determine the extent of the timber resource. Predictions of how the resource was changing were made by comparing differences between successive inventories. The general view of the associated sample design was with selection probabilities based on land area observed at a discrete point in time. Time was not considered to be part of the sa...
متن کاملExtending large-scale forest inventories to assess urban forests.
Urban areas are continuously expanding today, extending their influence on an increasingly large proportion of woods and trees located in or nearby urban and urbanizing areas, the so-called urban forests. Although these forests have the potential for significantly improving the quality the urban environment and the well-being of the urban population, data to quantify the extent and characterist...
متن کاملStatus and future of the forest health indicators program of the USA.
For two decades, the US Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, has been charged with implementing a nationwide field-based forest health monitoring effort. Given its extensive nature, the monitoring program has been gradually implemented across forest health indicators and inventoried states. Currently, the Forest Service's Forest Inventory and Analysis program has initiated forest health i...
متن کاملSupporting large-area, sample-based forest inventories with very high spatial resolution satellite imagery
Information needs associated with forest management and reporting requires data with a steadily increasing level of detail and temporal frequency. Remote sensing satellites commonly used for forest monitoring (eg, Landsat, SPOT) typically collect imagery with suffi cient temporal frequency, but lack the requisite spatial and categorical detail for some forest inventory information needs. Aerial...
متن کاملGeoss Possibilities and Challenges Related to Nation Wide Forest Monitoring
The Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) is structured into nine societal benefit areas, which all will require information related to the forest cover. Utilisation of methods that combine satellite remote sensing and in-situ observations are the focus of GEOSS. The best way to feed forest information into GEOSS is most likely from the national level. In Sweden and Finland, nation...
متن کامل