Maarten Nieuwenhuis

The development and validation of pre-harvest inventory methodologies for timber procurement in Ireland

Nieuwenhuis M. (2002). The development and validation of pre-harvest inventory methodologies for timber procurement in Ireland. Silva Fennica vol. 36 no. 2 article id 543. https://doi.org/10.14214/sf.543

Abstract

This article describes the development and validation of a decision-support system for sawmill wood procurement, dealing specifically with the integration of the pre-harvest inventory procedures, site-specific dbh/height models and a generic taper equation, with a crosscutting simulator. The crosscutting simulation program faithfully mimics the process of cut-to-length harvesting and provides detailed information on the potential volume, logs count and diameter distributions for different log assortment specifications. Four data sets, consisting of a total of 4153 diameter and height measurements, were used in the validation process. The sites included two Sitka spruce clearfells, a Sitka spruce thinning and a Norway spruce clearfell. The evaluation process has shown that the developed decision-support system produced accurate results for a wide range of stand types, as long as sufficient large data sets were used, and that it provides the wood procurement manager of a sawmill with an efficient means of gaining a comprehensive insight into the yield potential of standing timber lots and, as such, represents a valuable aid to timber procurement and production planning.

Keywords
pre-harvest inventory; simulation; dynamic programming; value maximisation; optimal crosscutting

Received 8 June 2001 Accepted 28 May 2002 Published 31 December 2002

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