BookChristoph Fischer, Berthold Traub, editors.
Summary: The Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) is a forest survey on national level which started in 1982 and has already reached its 5th survey cycle (NFI5). It can be characterized as a multisource and multipurpose inventory where information is mainly collected from terrestrial field surveys using permanent sample plots. In addition, data from aerial photography, GIS and forest service questionnaires are also included. The NFI's main objective is to provide statistically reliable and sound figures to stakeholders such as politicians, researchers, ecologists, forest service, timber industry, national and international organizations as well as to international projects such as the Forest Resources Assessment of the United Nations. For Switzerland, NFI results are typically reported on national and regional level. State of the art methods are applied in all fields of data collection which have been proven to be of international interest and have even served as a basis for other European NFIs. The presented methods are applicable to any sample based forest inventory around the globe. In 2001 the Swiss NFI published its methods for the first time. Since then, many methodological changes and improvements have been introduced. This book describes the complete set of methods and revisions since NFI2. It covers various topics ranging from inventory design and statistics to remote sensing, field survey methods and modelling. It also describes data quality concepts and the software framework used for data storage, statistical analysis and result presentation.
Contents:
Intro; Preface; Acknowledgements; Contents; Contributors; Part I: Swiss NFI at a Glance; 1: Swiss NFI at a Glance; 1.1 Introduction; 1.2 History and Objectives; 1.3 Legal Status, Obligations and Organisations; 1.4 Assessing Information Needs and NFI Impacts; 1.5 Content, Data Collection and Methods; 1.5.1 Content; 1.5.2 Design, Sampling Methods and Periodicity; 1.5.3 Data Collection and Analyses; 1.6 Reporting, Products and Services; 1.6.1 Reporting; 1.6.2 Other Products; 1.6.3 Services; Appendix; References; Part II: Sampling Design and Estimation Procedures 2.3.4 Sampling of Tariff Trees; 2.3.4.1 Motivation; 2.3.4.2 Poisson Sampling of Tariff Trees; 2.3.4.3 Fixed Association of Tariff Trees; 2.3.4.4 Optimal Sampling Schemes for Tariff Trees; 2.3.4.5 Tariff Tree Selection in NFI1; 2.3.5 Sampling Pieces of Lying Deadwood; 2.3.6 Sampling Young Trees; 2.4 Sampling Design of the NFI; 2.4.1 Basic Sampling Methods in Area Sampling; 2.4.2 Sampling Frames of the NFI; 2.4.3 NFI Panels for Terrestrial Data Collection; 2.4.4 NFI Panels for Auxiliary Data Collection; 2.5 Estimation Procedures; 2.5.1 Basic Estimators; 2.5.2 Use of Auxiliary Data 2.5.3 Domain Estimation; 2.5.4 Sampling Error and Confidence Intervals; 2.6 Estimation of Change; 2.6.1 Time Schedule Effects; 2.6.2 Dates and Calendar Years; 2.6.3 Vegetation Periods; 2.7 Net Change with Independent Samples; 2.7.1 Pooled Annual Panels; 2.7.2 Average Annual Change; 2.8 Estimation of Change Using Annual Panels; 2.8.1 The Role of Area Domains; 2.8.2 Average Change Per Unit Area; 2.8.3 Average Annual Change; 2.9 Change in the Population of Trees; 2.9.1 Definitions and Notation; 2.9.2 Change Components; 2.9.3 Derivation of Change Components for Tariff Trees; Appendix; References
Chapter 2: Sampling Design and Estimation Procedures2.1 Introduction; 2.1.1 Survey Sampling; 2.1.2 Chapter Contents; 2.2 Sampling Design and Estimation Procedures; 2.2.1 Population of Interest; 2.2.2 Forest and Shrub Forest Area; 2.2.3 Trees; 2.2.3.1 Tally Trees; 2.2.3.2 Young Trees; 2.2.4 Lying Deadwood; 2.2.5 Further Elements; 2.2.5.1 Forest Edge Survey; 2.2.5.2 Forest Road Survey; 2.3 Sampling Design; 2.3.1 Population Parameters of Interest; 2.3.2 Infinite Population Approach; 2.3.2.1 Local Density Functions in NFI; 2.3.2.2 Area Domain Estimation; 2.3.3 Sampling of Tally Trees Part III: Remote Sensing;
Chapter 3: Remote Sensing Data Sources; 3.1 Introduction; 3.2 Data Sources; References;
Chapter 4: Remote Sensing Data Management; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Database Model; 4.3 Controlling Processes and Resulting Data; References;
Chapter 5: Stereo GIS Application for Aerial-Image Interpretation; 5.1 Introduction; 5.2 Toolbar for Stereo GIS Application; 5.3 Image-Data Management; 5.4 Terrain Data, Topographic Maps and Feature Data Management; 5.5 Data Collection; 5.6 Data Checking; References;
Chapter 6: Variables on the Sample Plot Captured by the Stereo GIS Application