Advances and emerging issues in national forest inventories

Abstract

Abstract National forest inventories (NFIs) have a long history, although their current major features date only to the early years of the twentieth century. Recent issues such as concern over the effects of acid deposition, biodiversity, forest sustainability, increased demand for forest data, international reporting requirements and climate change have led to the expansion of NFIs to include more variables, greater diversity in sampling protocols and a generally more holistic approach. This review focuses on six selected topics: (1) a brief historical review; (2) a summary of common structural features of NFIs; (3) a brief review of international reporting requirements using NFI data with an emphasis on approaches to harmonized estimation; (4) an overview of inventory estimation methods that can be enhanced with remotely sensed data; (5) an overview of nearest neighbors prediction and estimation techniques; and (6) a brief overview of several emerging issues including carbon inventories in developing countries and use of lidar data. Although general inventory principles will remain unchanged, sampling designs, plot configurations and measurement protocols will require modification before they can be applied in countries with tropical forests. Technological advances, particularly in the use of remotely sensed data, including lidar data, have led to greater inventory efficiencies, better maps and accurate estimation for small areas.