Sören Wulff, Cornelia Roberge, Anna Hedström Ringvall, Sören Holm, Göran Ståhl. (2013). On the possibility to monitor and assess forest damage within large scale monitoring programmes – a simulation study. Silva Fennica vol. 47 no. 3 article id 1000. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.1000

Keywords: forest health; forest inventory; environmental monitoring and assessment; forest condition

Abstract | Full text in HTML | Full text in PDF | Author Info

There is a growing demand for information on forest health due to fears that climate change may cause new kinds of damage that have not previously been encountered. In many cases, forest damage monitoring is conducted exclusively within sparse large-scale grids of sample plots and it is doubtful whether these are capable of providing relevant information to support mitigation programmes or other actions required to reduce economic losses due to damage outbreaks. In this study, we used simulated sampling to assess the precision of estimators related to forest state and changes in the damage sustained by trees within an area corresponding to the Swedish region Götaland, assuming a sampling design corresponding to that used in the Swedish National Forest Inventory (NFI) under different damage scenarios. Large and uniformly distributed damage outbreaks were well captured by an NFI-type inventory, but scattered damage outbreaks produced estimates with poor precision. As a consequence, we propose that there might be a need to revise current forest damage monitoring programmes to make them more useful for monitoring the kinds of damage that are likely to arise as a consequence of climate change.

Wulff, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management, Skogsmarksgränd, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden E-mail: soren.wulff@slu.se
Roberge, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management, Skogsmarksgränd, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden E-mail: cornelia.roberge@slu.se
Ringvall, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management, Skogsmarksgränd, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden E-mail: anna.ringvall@slu.se
Holm, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management, Skogsmarksgränd, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden E-mail: soren.holm@slu.se
Ståhl, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Forest Resource Management, Skogsmarksgränd, SE-901 83 Umeå, Sweden E-mail: goran.stahl@slu.se

Click this link to register to Silva Fennica.

If you are a registered user, log in to save your selected articles for later access.

Contents alert

Your selected articles
Send to email

Pykäläinen J., (2000) Defining forest owner’s forest-management goals .. Silva Fennica vol. 34 no. 1 article id 644 (remove) | Edit comment

Johansson T., (1999) Biomass production of Norway spruce (Picea abies.. Silva Fennica vol. 33 no. 4 article id 649 (remove) | Edit comment

Larjavaara M., Muller-Landau H. C. (2011) Cross-section mass: an improved basis for woody .. Silva Fennica vol. 45 no. 2 article id 119 (remove) | Edit comment

Siipilehto J., (2011) Local prediction of stand structure using linear.. Silva Fennica vol. 45 no. 4 article id 99 (remove) | Edit comment

Kuusipalo J., Berg M.-A. et al. (1989) A cross-sectional population survey on the consu.. Silva Fennica vol. 23 no. 1 article id 5372 (remove) | Edit comment

Poso S., Paananen R. et al. (1987) Forest inventory by compartments using satellite.. Silva Fennica vol. 21 no. 1 article id 5307 (remove) | Edit comment

Cajander A. K., (1923) What do the forest types stand for? Acta Forestalia Fennica vol. 25 no. 4 article id 7079 (remove) | Edit comment

Nieppola J., (1993) Site classification in Pinus sylvestris L. fores.. Silva Fennica vol. 27 no. 1 article id 5494 (remove) | Edit comment

Johansson T., (1996) Site index curves for European aspen (Populus tr.. Silva Fennica vol. 30 no. 4 article id 5568 (remove) | Edit comment

Cajander A. K., (1930) Characters and meaning of forest types Silva Fennica vol. no. 15 article id 4456 (remove) | Edit comment

Hiltunen V., Kurttila M. et al. (2012) Strengthening top-level guidance in geographical.. Silva Fennica vol. 46 no. 4 article id 909 (remove) | Edit comment

Terhonen E., Kujala S. et al. (2025) Genetic variation of resistance in Scots pine as.. Silva Fennica vol. 59 no. 2 article id 25028 (remove) | Edit comment

Follow @SilvaFennica