for 474: forest inventory - university of idaho...wildlife management hazard assessment ‘remote...

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FOR 474: Forest Inventory

1. Advanced Forest Inventory

• The Need for Forest Sampling

• Brief Intro to Remote Sensing and GIS

Readings:

FOR 474: Forest Inventory

Related Courses!

• FOR 274: Forest Measurements

• REM 410: Range Measurements

• NR 402: GIS in Natural Resources

• Stats 422: Sample Survey Methods

• FOR 472: Remote Sensing

• FOR 570: Grad Remote Sensing

Forest managers are required to make important decisions relating to numerous (sometimes competing) resources.

Why do we Care About Forest Sampling?

g ( p g)

Ideally such decisions would be based off an inventory of all the organisms, but cost, feasibility, and timing make this rare

As such, we must make decisions based off only a small portion, or sample, of the data.

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Questions that this course will help answer:

• How can we use LiDAR in forest inventory assessment?

Why do we Care About Forest Sampling?

• How can we use LiDAR in forest inventory assessment?

• What are the limitations of LiDAR?

• What do we do when data is missing?

• How can we make management decisions?

Why Are Forest Inventories not Tree-Based?

Example: Assume in this forest we want to quantify the board feet of all PIPO >15” DBH

Problems:

Panhandle NF – D Taylor

- Many many trees will meet this requirement- These trees will likely be widely and irregularly dispersed

It will not be practical to develop a sampling protocol where each PIPO was a sampling unit

Why Are Forest Inventories not Tree-Based?

Timber estimation is rarely done with the individual tree as the sampling unit.

This is why Plots & Stands are used.

Panhandle NF – D Taylor

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The Forest: An Aerial Perspective

The Forest: An Aerial Perspective

Message of the Day: Analysis of aerial photography can enable us to assess a whole stand with no field measurements

A system for capturing, storing, checking, integrating, manipulating, analyzing, and displaying data which are spatially referenced to the Earth. : http://maps.google.com/

What is Not Remote Sensing?

Definition of a Geographic Information System (GIS):

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Campbell, 1996:‘Remote sensing is the science of obtaining information about

an object from measurements made at a distance from the object (i.e. without touching the object).’

Remote Sensing of the Earth frequently measures

Remote Sensing: Overview

Remote Sensing of the Earth frequently measures electromagnetic radiation in one or more regions of the

electromagnetic spectrum. This radiation can be reflected or emitted from the earth's surface.


Wildlife Management

Hazard Assessment

‘Remote sensing is the science of obtaining information about an objectfrom measurements made at a distance from the object (i.e. withouttouching the object).’


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Spatial Resolution

High Low


Extent

Low High


Spectral Resolution


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Geology and Terrain Modeling Volcanoes of Mars

Nevada surface materials map from AVIRIS imagery: Source: USGS Seeing Beneath Trees with

Lidar

Agriculture

Non-Ag Vegetation: Land Use/Change, Carbon, Disturbances

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Atmospheric Sciences

Hurricane Alleta

Oceanic Sciences

Phytoplankton

Sea Surface Temperatures

Urban

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Water, Ice, and Snow

Baffin Bay, Greenland

ASTER: Glaciers Retreating

The Forest: Lets Start With Aerial Photographs!

Airphoto acquisition

Airphoto interpretation

Aerial Photographs: Overview

p oto te p etat o

Cartographic/GIS Analysis

Data to Users

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Photo

fi ld f

P

Lens

Tilted Photo

fi ld f

PLens


field of view

90o

field of view

Opticalaxis

90o

b) low obliquea) Vertical aerial photography

Radial Displacement


Stereoscopy – The science of perceiving depth (and thus height) with two eyes/vantage points


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Visual Association: we can identify trees and rivers and thus use expert knowledge to infer what species are likely to occur near the river.

Aerial Photographs: Assessments

Pattern and Shape: we can identify trees by their branches


Pattern and Shape: we can also identify natural forests from human generated environments


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Color and Tone: we can easily separate conifers (dark) from hardwoods in winter or early spring


Color and Tone in Infrared Film: we can easily separate conifers from hardwoods as hardwoods reflect more infrared radiation and so appear brighter


Texture: can easily separate conifers (rough) from hardwoods (smooth)

Mature Conifer Stand

Conifers


Stand

Hardwoods

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Color and Tone in Infrared Film: we can easily separate healthy trees as they appear red and diseased trees appear green


Next Week …

LiDAR for Operational Forest Management

for 474: forest inventory - university of idaho...wildlife management hazard assessment ‘remote...

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