Use of the threshold segmentation method as an alternative for estimating the volume of forest industry residues

In recent decades, the interest in searching for procedures and strategies to make energetic and economic use of residues from different industries has been an important part of the political agenda. There are several methods to determine the volume of residues from the forestry industry, but they are too time-consuming to apply. The objective of the present study was to establish a simpler and more efficient method to quantify the volume of residues from the forest industry. Ten controlled piles were made with residues from a private sawmill in the city of Durango, Mexico. To calculate the volume, two manual methods and one automatic method were used to calculate the stacking coefficient of the piles, while the water immersion method was used to calculate the real volume. A completely random experimental design was used for the analysis, where an analysis of variance and mean comparisons were performed at a significance level of P ≤ 0.05. The results of the study show that the threshold segmentation method is faster, more practical and efficient than the other methods used. The estimation of the volume of these residues will contribute to generating sustainable alternatives for the development and use of forest industry resources.