title: Countrywide estimates of forest variables using satellite data and field data from the National Forest Inventory.
abstract: About 55% of the land area in Sweden is covered by forest. Presently, there is no uniform and geographically explicit description of the forest cover for Sweden. Independent data sources already existing are satellite data from Landsat TM and SPOT HRV, map masks and forest inventory plots. Together, they provide the possibility of computing estimates of forest variables such as stem volume and stand age. The accuracy for these estimations will be low on the pixel level, but higher on a stand level. This type of raster-based forest data is useful for authorities when planning how timber resources should be utilized or for monitoring purposes. The production line that was developed to create a countrywide database of forest variable estimates in a cost-efficient way is described. Accuracy of forest variable estimates for an area in southwestern Sweden was assessed at stand level. Results showed 33% overall root mean square error for the estimates of total wood volume, and 23% for the age estimates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Forest Resource Management and Geomatics, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences SLU, Umeå, Sweden. heather.reese@resgeom.slu.se
authors.forename: Heather
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Reese
authors.forename: Mats
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nilsson
authors.forename: Tina Granqvist
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Pahén
authors.forename: Olle
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Hagner
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Joyce
authors.forename: Ulf
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Tingelöf
authors.forename: Mikael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Egberth
authors.forename: Håkan
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Olsson
mesh_terms: D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018531:Spacecraft; D013548:Sweden; D014197:Trees