Research on an efficient forest assessment design as planning tool for sustainable forest management in South-Korea

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Christoph Kleinn
• Subject Area: Forestry
• Term: from 2004 to 2007
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5440543

National forest inventories (NFIs) provide information for decision making and policy formulation to support sustainable forest resource management. They are costly and need to be done as efficiently as possible, combining different information sources. In South-Korea, a NFI is in place since the 1970s but the inventory design is unchanged and not adapted yet to the changing information needs. In this study, in cooperation with Korean partners and complementing a Korean research project, three research questions will be worked on with the overall objective to raise the efficiency of the Korean NFI: (1) Integration of satellite remote sensing into inventory planning and analysis (regression modeling and multi-variate knn-method). (2) The field plot design will be optimized for different forest types (establishing covariance functions of principal attributes, and time-studies). (3) The overall sampling design will be adjusted and optimized, utilizing the findings of objectives (1) and (2), and simulation studies. While this development of assessment methods is being carried out for the specific condi-tions of South Korean forests, the results are of general interest in forest inventory research.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• International Connection: South Korea
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. M.Y. Shin