can we drop distance and direction from tree to plot center

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RaleighUFAT
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:47 pm

can we drop distance and direction from tree to plot center

Post by RaleighUFAT » Tue Feb 19, 2008 3:27 pm

How are distance and direction from tree to plot center used in the model? What are the implications of dropping these measures - they are quite time consuming (we don't have laser hypsometers or rangefinders, just tapes)? Are they actually used in any of the calculations, or are they mostly for reconstructing the plot or remeasurement? Thanks!
Jerry
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:11 pm

Post by Jerry » Wed Feb 20, 2008 7:44 pm

In UFORE, those data serve two purposes:
  • to allow for quality control
  • to permit changes to be assessed in the future using the same plots
I'm pretty sure that they play no role whatsoever in the UFORE calculations themselves.
Last edited by Jerry on Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Heythatsmybike
i-Tree Team
Posts: 11
Joined: Tue Jan 16, 2007 10:39 am
Location: New York

Distance and Direction

Post by Heythatsmybike » Thu Feb 21, 2008 12:02 pm

Stormy Jerry is correct. The distance and direction measurement are for quality control and creating a permanent series. With that said, there is no way around these requirements. You will find that if you use either the PDA or the Manual Data Entry program you will need to have these measurements or tree data will not recorded in the database.

Hope this helps you.
a member of the i-Tree Team
Jerry
Posts: 100
Joined: Wed Nov 28, 2007 8:11 pm

Well...

Post by Jerry » Sun Mar 02, 2008 6:45 pm

I didn't know that it was necessary to have distance and direction to every tree even if you have decided in setup to not establish permanent plots. I hope the i-Tree team will reconsider the wisdom of that decision in a future release, because I see no reason why the effort and cost of collecting those data should be forced upon the end user.

If that was me and I had the work to get done, I would just not collect distance and direction in dense plots. I would use paper (which most people find easier on such plots), then just put in imaginary data when I did manual data entry through the Shell, making sure there were no identical combinations.

PS: this whole thread belongs under Applications, since only UFORE is involved.
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