Streamlining the Inventory
There is presently an initiative underway
to streamline all aspects of the inventory as part of FAIB’s work to
address the Ministry Business Response.
This work, underway since 2009, consists of 8 projects
focused on improving efficiencies and reducing costs in the
following areas:
The LVI is being developed as a new, flexible,
alternative inventory tool to provide spatial and
attribute products at an appropriate level between
the existing vegetation resource inventory (stand
level) and vegetation resource monitoring
(provincial level) programs. Areas of the province
where a traditional photo interpretation inventory
is not justifiable or cost effective, such as lower
forest complexity, areas outside the timber
harvesting land base, parks or areas heavily
impacted by mountain pine beetle are considered the
primary targets for this type of inventory. The LVI
design includes two basic components: (1) Landsat
multispectral imagery for segmentation and
classification, and (2) low-level Digital Camera
System (DCS) image sampling, interpretation and
extrapolation to provide broad “VRI-like” mapping
products. The characteristics of the LVI design are
very low cost, broad scale, flexible, and
statistically defensible. It can be implemented at
FAIB on a limited budget with existing equipment,
staff and technical expertise. Protocols will be developed for LVI projects
during 2011; however, unlike a traditional photo
interpreted inventory where the standards and
procedures are the same for every mapsheet, the LVI
will require protocols that can accommodate the
scalability of LVI implementation and output
requirements. As these are developed for different
areas of the province, they will be made available
on the web starting in March 2012.
Inventory activities are being
strategically reviewed and assessed on an annual
basis to target inventory investment, with an
emphasis on VRI phase 1, in those units or portions
of units where there is the highest risk to the
resource (e.g. MPB impacted units).
Prioritization of Inventory Investments is
already well underway with annual listing of
priority projects determined by inventory
specialists across the Province in collaboration
with stakeholders.
A clear set of ranking criteria have been
developed for this process and will be made
available with the list of approved high priority
inventory projects, starting with the 2010/11 list
which is now finalized. This process will be
performed on an annual basis with a draft for the
subsequent fiscal year to be made available for
review and comment by December of each year before
the next fiscal and a final list to be approved by
March 31st .
Inventory ground sampling currently consists of several types of ground sampling procedures and standards which need to be rationalized to meet audit requirements, monitoring (CMI) and reduced sampling size for cost savings. This component builds on the results from the inventory re-think work initiated in 2009. An initial assessment of all ground sampling types has been conducted. Review and confirmation of CMI business needs will be conducted with stakeholders in concert with development of a rationalized ground sampling protocol that is suitable for inventory audit purposes and can be implemented with a reduced number of samples for cost savings.
NVAF needs to be implemented at a regional,
rather than a management unit, level with
stratification based on tree species and
biogeoclimatic zone. Sufficient NVAF data has been
collected (~3,500 trees over a 12 year time span) to
allow for an analysis (of the errors in tree volume
estimation) to determine logical strata and to
identify gaps in NVAF information. This component
will be guided by data analysis to identify strata,
calculation of interim regional NVAFs, a data gap
analysis and a sampling plan to fill the data gaps.
The current VRI annual projection is complex and
time consuming and future funding to contract this
work is unlikely, therefore the process needs to be
streamlined for in-house application. This component
will involve a technical analysis of how best to
address in-house processing of annual projections.
The technical analysis will also determine
how biomass estimates will be appended to the
on-line inventory and how MPB killed stands will be
processed in future updates. FAIB will have the
ability to project in-house based on revised annual
projection procedures by March 31st,
2011.
Processing data requests is currently time
consuming and complex, therefore FAIB will undertake
a study to examine options to improve this process
and proceed with transfer of data to an appropriate
site based on this study. Streamlining Sample Data
Requests will investigate options for on-line
storage of inventory data and make recommendations
as to benefits, costs, technical requirements and
staff time. Transfer of sample data to an
appropriate site will then commence based on review
of these recommendations, starting by March 31st,
2011.
Analysis procedures have been revised and
simplified. Initially, 50 sample locations will be established in a
management unit (please refer to sub-project 3
above). With the smaller sample sizes, it will not
be appropriate to analyses the VRI data with a view
to adjusting inventory attributes. The small sample
sizes will be used to detect issues and give
guidance to decision makers on the state of the
inventory. The attributes of the vegetated treed
component of the inventory will not be adjusted in
these circumstances. However, an analysis will still
be required to report the findings from ground
sampling.
The VSIP and VPIP planning processes are presently time consuming and expensive. There are opportunities for the process to be streamlined. The VSIP and VPIP often provide overlapping information, varying degrees of detail, and different standards. As well, the funding and delivery model, number and length of documents, and reviewers involved make the process cumbersome and greatly increases the turnaround time. VSIPs are now NOT being prepared.
How do I find out more?
Further information on the Vegetation Resources Inventory program
can be obtained by contacting Albert
Nussbaum Director, Forest Analysis and Inventory Branch at 250-356
5958 or Albert.Nussbaum@gov.bc.ca