Trends and prospects of national forest inventories of the advanced nations : Toward multi-resource inventories.

Abstract

This paper describes the recent trends in national forest inventory systems of the advanced nations. Each system is analyzed according to sampling methods, itemes of inventory, GIS, remote sensing, information systems, publications and users. The main characteristics common to these countries are 1) Gathered information cover all kinds of timber and non-timber resources, 2) Objectives of inventory are changed from repeated temporary field inventories to monitor the changes of forests and environments. 3) Remote sensing and GIS techniques are now being applied to CFI systems to provide up-to-date forest information for local areas, and 4) Computer-aided systems have been developed to acquire and process data efficiently. A modified forest register system combined with a monitoring survey based on CFI and remote sensing is recommended for Japan.