Distributing FIA Information onto Segmented Landsat Thematic Mapper Images Stratified

with Industrial Ground Data

Tripp Lowe1, Chris J. Cieszewski2, Michal Zasada3,4, and Jarek Zawadzki3

Abstract: 

The ability to evaluate the ecological and economical effects of proposed modifications to Georgia’s best management practices is an important issue in the State. We have incorporated tabular FIA data with Landsat Thematic Mapper satellite images and other spatial data to model Georgia’s forested land and assess the area, volume, age, and site quality of two stream and road buffer regimes. Each regime included different buffer widths for perennial and intermittent streams and slope classes. We discuss here the technical details of this work. With ever increasing public awareness of the welfare of natural resources, land managers are under great pressure to manage our forestlands with publicly acceptable stewardship. One of the prevalent issues is maintaining and improving the quality of our streams, public lakes, reservoirs, and wetlands. As a guideline for the forestry community, the Georgia Forestry Commission has compiled a set of “common sense, economical, and effective” methods, called “best management practices” (BMPs) (GFC 1999), designed to reduce nonpoint source pollution and protect the waters. While the BMPs are now voluntary in Georgia, many forest managers in the State believe

that the regulations within the riparian zones should be further expanded. For each change considered, we must be able to evaluate the possible ecological and economical impacts. As a basis for these evaluations, we need to know the amount and type of land that will be influenced by the considered change. Here we describe the use of currently available GIS and remote sensing technologies for evaluating such potential adjustments to the BMPs and their likely impacts on the resource availability. We performed several analyses of Georgia’s timberlands in which tabular FIA data were incorporated into stands derived from various types of GIS data.

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1 GIS Analyst, 2Assistant Professor, 3Postdoctoral Fellow, respectively, Warnell School of Forest Resources, University of Georgia, Athens, GA.

4 Assistant Professor at Faculty of Forestry, Warsaw Agricultural University, Poland.

5 Assistant Professor, Environmental Engineering Department, Warsaw University of Technology, Poland.

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