M.Forst.1513: Monitoring of forest resources

Learning outcome:
Familiarize the students with the range of methods and techniques applied to forest monitoring in the preparation, planning, implementation and analysis phase. Objective is that the students are eventually in the position to carry out their own monitoring projects, and that they have the criteria to judge the quality of monitoring projects in general. Focus is on the target-oriented planning and the definition of the most appropriate sampling design and plot design that guarantees the generation of highquality information for the decision makers in forestry.

Courses and examinations
Monitoring of forest resources (Exercise, Lecture, 4 SWS)

Forest monitoring is a forestry discipline that aims at the comprehensive and objective characterization of the forests as a production system and/or as an ecological system in a defined geographic area, in terms of status quo and changes. Forest inventories are the core element of monitoring and they generate data and information required by foresters, forest politicians and forest researchers to support decision making. The course module “Monitoring of forest resources” intends to familiarize the students with the range of methods and techniques applied to forest inventories in the preparation, planning, implementation and analysis phase. Objective is that the students are eventually in the position to carry out their own monitoring projects of forests and related resources, and that they know the criteria to judge the quality of monitoring projects in general. Focus is on the target-oriented planning and the
definition of the most appropriate sampling design and plot design that guarantees the generation of high-quality information for the decision makers in forestry. That includes comprehensive presentation of statistical sampling. Examples of small and large area inventories and monitoring are presented and critically analysed. The important remote sensing applications for forest monitoring are not dealt with in detail in this module, as this topic is covered in other modules; but the relevance of integrated inventories (combining field sampling and remote sensing) is addressed. The development of forest inventories towards integrated “landscape inventories”, “multi-resource inventories”, “tree inventories” is also addressed of this course.
Prerequisites: Sound basis in “Forest mensuration” and basic statistics.

Exam: Written exam (120 Minutes)

Core skills:
Target-oriented planning and the definition of the most appropriate sam-pling design and plot design that guarantees the generation of high-quality information for decision makers in forestry and related fields. In-troductory knowledge about remote sensing imagery (aerial photographs and satellite imagery) as one of the data sources employed in forest inventories. The development of forest inventories towards integrated "landscape inventories", "multi-resource inventories", "tree inventories". The students should be in the position to plan and carry out their own inventory projects, and that they
have the criteria to judge the quality of inventory projects of others.

Workload:
180 (56/124 h, Attendance time /Self-study time)

Workload:
180 (56/124 h, Attendance time /Self-study time)

Admission requirements:
None

Recommended previous knowledge:
None

Language:
English

Person responsible for module:
Prof. Dr. Christoph Kleinn

Course frequency:
Academic Term each winter semester

Duration:
One semester

Number of repeat examinations permitted:
Twice

Recommended Semester:
First Semester

Maximum number of students:
Unlimited