Impact of
Definitions of FIA Variables and Compilation Procedures on Inventory
Compilation Results in
Brock Stewart, Chris J. Cieszewski,
and Micha_Zasada
Abstract:
This paper presents a
sensitivity analysis of the impact of various definitions and inclusions of
different variables in the Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) inventory on
data compilation results. FIA manuals have been changing recently to make the
inventory consistent between all the States. Our analysis demonstrates the
importance (or insignificance) of
different variations of the compilation
procedures on the statistical summaries regarding volume and area
distributions. The
Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program,
providing nationwide information about forest resources, has changed rapidly
during the past several years. Following the recommendations of the second Blue
Ribbon Panel and the Agricultural Research, Extension, and Education Reform Act
of 1998 (Section 253c), the periodic inventory system, providing information
for individual States every 5 to 10 years, has switched to an annual system in
which 20 percent of the total number of sample plots (a “panel”) is
measured annually. The FIA also has emphasized eliminating differences between
inventory systems and database designs in the program regions and introducing a
consistent system using the same database format.
During the transition from a periodic to
annual system and the adaptation of the regional systems, many changes were
made to the inventory design, manuals, and definitions. The process of the
database conversion from Eastwide Forest Inventory
database (Hansen et al. 1992) to the common FIA database introduced
additional inconsistencies in data, causing a few changes in the calculation
algorithms (Miles et al. 2001).
last periodic inventory in the State
(Thompson 1998), and then reorganized its inventory grid to match the national
scheme, measuring single panels on an annual basis.
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