Measurement repeatability of a large-scale inventory of forest fuels

An efficient and accurate inventory of forest fuels at large scales is critical for assessment of forest fire hazards across landscapes. The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service conducts a national inventory of fuels along with blind remeasurement of a portion of in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Forest ecology and management 2007-12, Vol.253 (1), p.171-176
Main Authors: Westfall, J.A., Woodall, C.W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal and plant ecology
Animal, plant and microbial ecology
bias
Biological and medical sciences
coarse woody debris
combustible materials
data collection
Data quality
dead wood
Down woody material
fire hazard reduction
Forest and land fires
Forest biomass
Forest fire
forest fires
forest inventory
Forest Inventory and Analysis
forest litter
Fuels inventory
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
measurement
Measurement bias
Phytopathology. Animal pests. Plant and forest protection
repeatability
statistical analysis
Synecology
Terrestrial ecosystems
USDA Forest Service
Weather damages. Fires
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Summary:An efficient and accurate inventory of forest fuels at large scales is critical for assessment of forest fire hazards across landscapes. The Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program of the USDA Forest Service conducts a national inventory of fuels along with blind remeasurement of a portion of inventory plots to monitor and improve data quality. The goal of this study was to evaluate the measurement repeatability/biases of FIA's national inventory of fuels and suggest opportunities for improving data quality and application of sampling protocols. Results indicated that more than half of the attributes did not attain the desired levels of repeatability and about one-third exhibited a non-zero measurement bias. However, the bias generally had little affect on plot-level estimates. A number of factors that contributed to these results were examined and a holistic approach that considers all aspects of inventory was suggested to improve measurement repeatability.
ISSN:0378-1127
1872-7042
DOI:10.1016/j.foreco.2007.07.014