Dees, Matthias
2 TEST SITE AND DATABASE
The study is taking place in the state forest of the forest district Münster in the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen. The
location of the state forest Münster in the Federal Republic of Germany is shown in figure 1. The state forest Münster
consists of several relatively small, very widely scattered forest areas as shown in figure 1. The forest area takes up an
area of around 2,600 ha. Oak (Quercus robur & Quercus petrea) and beech (Fagus sylvatica) stands predominates
among broad-leaved stands, while spruces (Picea abies) dominate among the conifers. Within the framework of the
study, the data listed in table 1 along with the times of the surveys were available.
Data type Year of acquisition
Former stand-based inventory 1984-1995
Actual stand-based inventory 1998
Systematic inventory 1998
sample size 817, grid 125m x 250m , concentric sample plots (r= Im tor = 12m)
Forest stands with accurate surveys for 23 individual stands, 1998
based on diameter measurements of all trees
Digital panchromatic Orthophotos, scale 1: 12 500 1988-1996
CIR-photos, scale 1: 12 500 1998
IRS 1C - PAN, IRS 1C — LISS 1997
Landsat TM 5, supplied already geo-referenced and topographically normalised by | 1997
the forest research institution of the state Nordrhein-Westfalen LOBF, Münster.
Digital Hight Model, 50 m raster
Table 1. Overview of the study data
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Figure 1. Location of the area under study within Germany, with test areas, selected for intensive analysis
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3 STRATIFICATION
3.1 Requirements
The partition of the entire forest area in the forest district into stands of known size is a requirement for the application
of stratification. The summarising of stands into strata using attributes of the stands results in strata with known borders
and areas inside the forest district.
A distribution of the samples in a systematic grid makes an optimal distribution within the area under study possible and
leads, along with a partition into strata, to a distribution of the samples across the strata that is approximately
356 International Archives of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing. Vol. XXXIII, Part B7. Amsterdam 2000.
