Techniques
Forest inventories are expensive to conduct and the results need to be available as soon as possible following data acquisition. As such, efforts are ongoing to make the inventory faster, better, and cheaper by research to gain efficiencies in sample design and processing.
Research Studies
National Forest System Monitoring Coordination and Techniques Development
The National Forest System (NFS) of the US Forest Service manages more than 192 million acres of land. In the past, forest monitoring was conducted with less emphasis on standardized procedures and measuring accountability for meeting national management goals. In recent years, however, efforts have been made to measure the effects of management policies in a standardized way. As the Forest Service begins to implement these policies, new techniques and tools are needed to meet agency requirements.
Development of Software Tools for the Planning, Execution and Analysis of Inventory and Monitoring Studies
NIMAC clients often contact us with general goals and desired outcomes of a monitoring study. Without specific goals, however, it is difficult to determine what variables to measure, how to design the inventory, what products will be produced, and how results will be used. Above all, planning and budget formation cannot proceed without these critical first steps. Once the project goals are established, the planning phase can begin. However, without a consistent, documented procedure to design the study and estimate costs given a desired level of precision of results, it is difficult to plan efficiently. Finally, once results are collected, tools are needed to store, process, and report estimates and their precision derived from the monitoring study.
Last Modified: 10/14/2008