10th national forest inventory
The NFI cycle was speeded up. From now on, field measurements are
made every year throughout the country. The decision was made to
speed up the inventory cycle because stricter requirements are being
set to having real-time data on forest reserves. In the previous
method the measurements proceeded from one region to the next, and
measuring the entire country took almost ten years. The new inventory
system guarantees that the NFI data is measured at the same time
point in different parts of the country.
To make the NFI calculation more efficient the operations were
reorganised by allocating the NFI implementation and method development
into separate functions. To ensure wider application possibilities
for the inventory data it was agreed that project coordinators from
the Forest Research Centres would participate in the field work
and in exchange, the Centres would receive the NFI data for use.
As a result of the cooperation, the NFI and forest planning can
be interlinked more closely, which means that the inventory results
can be utilised more efficiently.
The change will not affect the reliability of the results, because
the number of field sample plots measured in the field will be almost
the same as before. One fifth of the field sample plots are measured
in a year, so the whole network of plots will be completely measured
in five years. More than one hundred characteristic markers relating
to the tree stand, soil and vegetation are collected from the test
plots. The definition of the markers was improved to facilitate
international comparisons. In summer 2004 measurements were made
throughout the southern Finland except in the Åland Islands,
i.e. south from Kainuu and northern Ostrobothnia.
As a contract task for the forest industry, an update run and report
on the NFI data was delivered. The NFI results were calculated for
the whole country by every Forestry Centre and for private forest
owners the calculation was done by taxation classes. At the same
time, the NFI data of southern Finland was updated to correspond
with the situation of 2002 by using growth models and regeneration
and intermediate cuttings identified on the basis of satellite images.
Additional information: http://www.metla.fi/ohjelma/vmi/info-en.htm
| The national forest inventory is a monitoring system of forests and forest reserves to produce information on the amount, growth and quality of tree stands. The NFI also provides information on the forest health status, diversity and forest carbon balance.
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