Analysis of wood availability from forest inventory and analysis data using a geographic information system.

摘要

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) collects forest inventory data for each state at intervals of 5 to 15 years. This data is used by state forestry agencies to determine the availability of round wood in various aerial parts of their states (woodsheds) in support of economic development. The inventory data is poorly suited to this purpose if analysis of areas other than those provided by the USFS are desired. This project was designed to provide a method of analyzing wood availability for any region of the state (NY is the sample) using the inventory data. A geographic information system (GIS, pcARC/INFO) was the platform upon which the analysis application was built. The application has a menu-driven interface which allows the selection of (1) woodshed types (circle, selection of countie(s), or user-defined area) and (2) tabular output based on species, minimum diameter (DBH), and several other volume or biomass criteria.