1st Edition

Sampling Techniques for Forest Inventories

By Daniel Mandallaz Copyright 2008
    272 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
    by Chapman & Hall

    272 Pages 27 B/W Illustrations
    by Chapman & Hall

    Sound forest management planning requires cost-efficient approaches to optimally utilize given resources. Emphasizing the mathematical and statistical features of forest sampling to assess classical dendrometrical quantities, Sampling Techniques for Forest Inventories presents the statistical concepts and tools needed to conduct a modern forest inventory.

    The book first examines design-based survey sampling and inference for finite populations, covering inclusion probabilities and the Horvitz–Thompson estimator, followed by more advanced topics, including three-stage element sampling and the model-assisted estimation procedure. The author then develops the infinite population model/Monte Carlo approach for both simple and complex sampling schemes. He also uses a case study to reveal a variety of estimation procedures, relies on anticipated variance to tackle optimal design for forest inventories, and validates the resulting optimal schemes with data from the Swiss National Forest Inventory. The last chapters outline facts pertaining to the estimation of growth and introduce transect sampling based on the stereological approach.

    Containing many recent developments available for the first time in book form, this concise and up-to-date work provides the necessary theoretical and practical foundation to analyze and design forest inventories.

    preface
    Introduction and terminology
    Sampling finite populations: the essentials
    Sampling schemes and inclusion probabilities
    The Horvitz–Thompson estimator
    Simple random sampling without replacement
    Poisson sampling
    Unequal probability sampling with replacement
    Estimation of ratios
    Stratification and post-stratification
    Two-stage sampling
    Single-stage cluster-sampling
    Systematic sampling
    Exercises
    Sampling finite populations: advanced topics
    Three-stage element sampling
    Abstract nonsense and elephants
    Model-assisted estimation procedures
    Exercises
    Forest Inventory: one-phase sampling schemes
    Generalities
    One-phase one-stage simple random sampling scheme
    One-phase one-stage cluster random sampling scheme
    One-phase two-stage simple random sampling
    One-phase two-stage cluster random sampling
    Exercises
    Forest Inventory: two-phase sampling schemes
    Two-phase one-stage simple random sampling
    Two-phase two-stage simple random sampling
    Two-phase one-stage cluster random sampling
    Two-phase two-stage cluster random sampling
    Internal linear models in two-phase sampling
    Remarks on systematic sampling
    Exercises
    Forest Inventory: advanced topics
    The model-dependent approach
    Model-assisted approach
    Small-area estimation
    Modeling relationships
    Exercises
    Geostatistics
    Variograms
    Ordinary Kriging
    Kriging with sampling error
    Double Kriging for two-phase sampling schemes
    Exercises
    CASE STUDY
    Optimal sampling schemes for forest inventory
    Preliminaries
    Anticipated variance under the local Poisson model
    Optimal one-phase one-stage sampling schemes
    Discrete approximations of PPS
    Optimal one-phase two-stage sampling schemes
    Optimal two-phase sampling schemes
    Exercises
    The Swiss National Forest Inventory
    Estimating change and growth
    Exercises
    Transect Sampling
    Generalities
    IUR transect sampling
    PPL transect sampling
    Transects with fixed length
    Buffon’s needle problem
    Exercises
    APPENDIX A: Simulations
    Preliminaries
    Simple random sampling
    Systematic cluster sampling
    Two-phase simple systematic sampling
    Figures
    APPENDIX B: Conditional expectations and variances
    APPENDIX C: Solutions to selected exercises
    Bibliography
    INDEX

    Biography

    Mandallaz, Daniel

    …the text is an excellent addition to the forest and natural resource inventory literature, and nicely compliments classic and contemporary texts focused broadly on applied concepts and tools but lacking in rigorous statistical treatment. … this text is an important contribution to the literature, as it provides a unique, mathematically rigorous tour of classical and modern topics on forest sampling theory. Of particular importance is the text’s emphasis on model-based methods, which are becoming increasingly important within forest and natural resources inventory.
    The American Statistician, Vol. 63, No. 3, August 2009, and JASA, Winter 2008

    …In this field, the author is a leading expert who presents the modern state of the art, in particular his own work of the last two decades. … a valuable, up-to-date reference book for the theoretical aspects of forest inventories and sampling … .
    —Dietrich Stoyan, Biometrical Journal, Vol. 51, 2009

    This compact little volume is packed with important and useful ideas.
    —Donald E. Myers, University of Arizona, Technometrics, May 2009

    This is an important reference for those wanting to understand the theory of sampling in forest inventory, and also for those with graduate- or postgraduate-level skills in statistics who apply these techniques in the forestry industry. Despite its length, the book provides reasonably thorough coverage of the theory of statistics applied to forest inventories. …a very useful, up-to-date reference book on the theory of statistics as it should be applied to forest inventory.
    International Statistical Review, 2008