17. REMOTE SENSING REQUIREMENTS TO SUPPORT FOREST
INVENTORIES
153
3.
RECENT INFORMATION NEEDS FOR FOREST
INVENTORY
3.1
Timber production needs
Paper consumption has increased from about 130 million tons at the
beginning of the 1970s to 276 million tons in 1995. It is expected to increase
to 420–440 million tons by 2010 (Ranneby 1997). On the other hand, over
one half the timber harvested each year is still used for cooking and heating,
causing for instance deforestation in the dry tropics.
The principal purpose of forest inventories has been to provide accurate
information for forest management planning and the planning of forest
industry investments. Accordingly, optional cutting possibilities with future
forest development scenarios have been computed on the basis of inventory
results. These scenarios have formed the basis for forest policy and forest
utilization. This is especially true in industrialized countries.
Timber processing and marketing practices have changed dramatically in
these countries during the last decade. Earlier, there was a long time interval
between harvesting and the delivery of the timber, panel or paper products to
the customer. Harvesting decisions were mainly forest production driven,
derived from long-term yield regulations and management plans, modified
by operational logging schedules. Large timber and end product stocks had
to be maintained and prices fluctuated rapidly as the market changed.
Today, mechanized mobile harvesting machinery, high speed processing
facilities, and short timber drying or pulping schedules have reduced to less
than one week the time between the decision to harvest and delivery of a
specific timber end-product. Harvest planning has now the potential to
become “market driven”. On the other hand, forestry and harvesting
increasingly have to meet strict environmental demands and to achieve
“sustainability” in its widest sense. Today, forest certification or eco-labeling
systems are often seen as a solution to enforce improved practices in forestry
and forest industry. To achieve these requirements, it is necessary to have
up-to-date geo-referenced forestry data systems with precise knowledge
about log specifications and the forest ecosystem. If inventories based on
field measurement techniques alone were employed, they would require a
very high proportion of the trees to be measured, and this would simply be
unrealistically expensive.
INVENTORIES
153
3.
RECENT INFORMATION NEEDS FOR FOREST
INVENTORY
3.1
Timber production needs
Paper consumption has increased from about 130 million tons at the
beginning of the 1970s to 276 million tons in 1995. It is expected to increase
to 420–440 million tons by 2010 (Ranneby 1997). On the other hand, over
one half the timber harvested each year is still used for cooking and heating,
causing for instance deforestation in the dry tropics.
The principal purpose of forest inventories has been to provide accurate
information for forest management planning and the planning of forest
industry investments. Accordingly, optional cutting possibilities with future
forest development scenarios have been computed on the basis of inventory
results. These scenarios have formed the basis for forest policy and forest
utilization. This is especially true in industrialized countries.
Timber processing and marketing practices have changed dramatically in
these countries during the last decade. Earlier, there was a long time interval
between harvesting and the delivery of the timber, panel or paper products to
the customer. Harvesting decisions were mainly forest production driven,
derived from long-term yield regulations and management plans, modified
by operational logging schedules. Large timber and end product stocks had
to be maintained and prices fluctuated rapidly as the market changed.
Today, mechanized mobile harvesting machinery, high speed processing
facilities, and short timber drying or pulping schedules have reduced to less
than one week the time between the decision to harvest and delivery of a
specific timber end-product. Harvest planning has now the potential to
become “market driven”. On the other hand, forestry and harvesting
increasingly have to meet strict environmental demands and to achieve
“sustainability” in its widest sense. Today, forest certification or eco-labeling
systems are often seen as a solution to enforce improved practices in forestry
and forest industry. To achieve these requirements, it is necessary to have
up-to-date geo-referenced forestry data systems with precise knowledge
about log specifications and the forest ecosystem. If inventories based on
field measurement techniques alone were employed, they would require a
very high proportion of the trees to be measured, and this would simply be
unrealistically expensive.