REPORT OF COMMISSION VII 
GVII-39 
possible making distinctions between forests in different density and site classes 
and even, to a more limited extent, to determine exploitation and botanical 
composition. The fact that the photographs were taken in December was im 
portant in that the oak still retained some pale foliage; this greatly facilitated 
separation of the oak and pine groups. On the basis of crown closure, the pine 
areas were divided into two density classes and the oak into three classes. Since 
the crown closure method afforded little or no opportunity to distinguish the 
actual form of the woodland, exploitation classes were defined, i.e., unexploited, 
lightly exploited and heavily exploited. The field work, based on the preliminary 
work, proved the value of the photography and allowed truly representative 
plots to be selected, and access to them planned with a minimum waste of time. 
Plot enumeration will provide valuable basic data on age, size and growth 
rate of different tree species—data never before obtained in Iraq and very 
necessary for the reforestation programs now being considered. 
In January 1954 many millions of trees were blown over by a violent storm 
in Middle Sweden. Especially to the most damaged province of Gastrikland, 
woodcutters and hauling equipment had to be brought together rapidly from 
other parts of Sweden, new roads built, etc. But the problem was how much 
work and equipment was needed and the location of all the windfall areas. 
Aerial photographs were used. The appearance of the woods before the storm 
could be seen from summer pictures taken a few years earlier by the Geographi 
cal Survey office. The Board of Crown Lands and Forests proposed that new 
pictures of the snow-covered landscape should be taken by the Air Forces as 
soon as possible. Two days later the new pictures, showing the woods after the 
storm, were delivered. By comparing the old pictures and the new, all with a 
scale of about 1:20,000, the windfalls could be fixed concerning location as 
well as area. The volume per hectare of the fallen trees was approximately 
estimated on the ground or from a helicopter. After that the needed arrange 
ments for taking charge of the windfallen wood were made by different authori 
ties and forest-owners. 
Aerial photos were used very intensively for the Land Use and Forest Sur 
vey in Taiwan from 1954 through 1956. Panchromatic photos covered the en 
tire 3,596,121 hectares at scales of 1:40,000 to 1:50,000. For the agricultural 
lands (| of the Island) photos were used at 1:16,000. In addition, sample in 
frared photos in strips were used at 1:4,000 to 1:10,000 scales. Photo inter 
pretation aids included parallax wedges, crown density scales, crown diameter 
scales and dot grids. For the forest inventory, the following forest types were 
recognized on aerial photographs. 
Spruce and/or fir (Picea morrisonicola and Abies Kawakamii) 
Hemlock (Tsuga Chinensis) 
Cypress (Chamaecyparis formosensis and Chamaecyparis taiwanansis) 
Pine (Pinus spp.) 
Other conifer (Coniferous species other than the above-listed) 
Conifer and hardwood mixture 
Hardwoods (Tropical, subtropical and temperate, mainly based upon eleva 
tion) 
Commercial Bamboo (Phyllostachys makinoi, Phyllostachys edulis, Sino- 
calmus latiflorus, and Bambusa Stenostachya) 
Stand volume was determined by an aerial volume table in which average 
stand height and crown closure were the basic factors. Stand size was classified 
as shown in Table 1.