Forestry Tools

What open source geo products have tools that may be specially useful for foresters and resource managers? A discussion started on the QGIS-User list led to starting this page.

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Interested? - add your name and area of interest, availability, expertise, to the Talk:Forestry_Tools page.

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Objective

A variety of forestry software is currently available and employed by the forestry industry. However, this software is generally expensive, closed-source, and not customizable. These factors have led to increasing challenges such as translating between formats, exchanging data, lack of metadata, poor understanding of the tools used, and for some a frustration with the inability to customize options, rules, equations, and tools.

Foresty Tools will be a QGIS plug-in designed to give forest resource managers and planners another option for analyzing forestry data. Over time, it is hoped that it attracts a wide base of users and contributors and becomes increasingly comprehensive to address all facets of forestry management and decision-making. Forestry Tools will be initially designed to serve the needs of field-level foresters.

Forestry tools is:

• Free and Open-Source.
• Well documented.
• Useful to the basic field-level forester.
• Using the most commonly used forestry methodology.
• Easy to use.
• Understandable to the computer literate, but not necessarily technophiles.

Overview

Forestry Tools can be installed through the native QGIS plugin installer. It is built in Python. It will likely require additional installations to run most effectively (PostGIS, Spatialite, or some other database). Once installed, Forestry Tools will contain menu options to access the different features and tools.

Inventory Setup

Inventory Setup will be accessed from the Foresty Tools menu. Upon selecting this option, a dialog will appear for user input. Within the dialog, the user can select vector files and basic criteria to generate inventory plots. Depending on need, these plots can be randomly located, or stratified by stand, management unit, or forest boundaries located within the vector file. Users can define sampling intensity as well as the required plot buffer distance (so plots do not stack or locate too close to one another). Once all options are selected, the user can hit "okay" and a new vector file with the user's inventory plots. Once a satisfactory layout is achieved, QGIS can export the plots to GPX files for field use.

Inventory Analysis

Prior to using the Inventory Analysis, inventory data must be stored in a Comma-Separated-Value (csv) file. This file may contain all or some of the commonly collected inventory data (plot ID, tree species, diameter, merchantable height, total height, grade, defect, etc).

Inventory Analysis will be accessed from the Forestry tools menu. Upon selecting this option a dialog will appear for the user to select the "inventory file." This file is the CSV which contains the inventory data. First, the user will be asked to match the column names in the "inventory" file to the terminology or variable need of Forestry Tools.

Once completed, the user will be given a list of options for data analysis. These options may include: log rule to be used, product classifications, taper and product limitations, volume preferences (cds, mbf, or ft3), cruise type (variable, fixed point, etc), and associated options. The last step prior to submission, is to select the vector layer which contains the plot locations and to define the save location. This will be needed to assign the collected data to management units.

Forestry Tools will match Plot ID to the plot layer and determine which management unit each plot is located within. Forestry Tools will generate stocking tables (trees per acre by diameter and species), volume tables (volume by species and product class), and associated charts (bar graph of species and diameter). These tables and charts will be saved as CSV or image file in the appropriately defined folder.

Later Features

• Ability to view and manipulate reports within QGIS.
• Define custom layouts for reports to be printed.
• Add custom tree tapers,log rules, and associated calculations.
• Table/Survey/Form for field data collection.

General Categories

What types of workflow or features are required for managing forests? Think broad, and then we can get into specifics in each category.

GPS traversing

General data capture to record paths, boundaries and locations using GPS.

• Ability to turn it on/off
• Ability to capture multiple types of features

Design and capture

Block, road, treatment areas

• Connect various attributes to GPS collected information
• Custom input forms

Mobile map platform

Following current and planned locations

• Map layer control on/off
• Zoom, pan, query
• Basic feature calculations - length, area, sum attributes
• Show GPS,
• Auto panning map via GPS
• Edit stand boundary and sale boundary shapefiles

Inventory collection and analysis

Backend database and front end collection of inventory details

• Offline database, with inventory schema
• Platform for mobile data collection and input
• Auto form generation for particular feature types
• Syncing with master db when back online
• Generation of reports such as stand tables, stocking tables, and associated information.
• Predict future devlopment of standing volume etc.
• Perform economic analysis with specifed user input
• Ability to calibrate based on localized growth and yield tables.
• Support for a varity of cruise methods. (Point, fixed plot, etc.)
• Support for a variety of volume tables. (Scribner, Doyle, International 1/4, Carlson Method).

Sample plot reconnaissance and survey

• Generate plot schemes based on sampling intensity needs, and other input criteria (random vs. systematic, etc).
  • Zig Zag schema based on tract width/length.
• Relate/connect plot/survey locations with inventory to allow for plot re-use in subsequent more intensive sampling efforts.

Terrain/slope/area/distance computation and measurements

• Ability to work in, use and display acres/hectares rather than just sq ft/m and miles/km.

Time-analysis

• What has the development of the different stands been over the years?
• Compare pictures taken previously to visualize changes
• Linking stands over time (splitting, changing borders)
• Change detection
  • DTclassifier plugin

Surveying

• From old style surveying techniques, calculate positions of corners/markers in GPS datum

Additional Resources

1. Sign up for the mailing list at Forestry Tools Mailing List