Management Inventory (CFI) and Some of its Basic Statistical Problems

Management Inventory is mainly concerned with supplying data on current volume and growth of relatively large forest areas. The sampling technique has certain characteristics, the main ones being (a) successive measurements on permanent and temporary plots, (b) post-stratification instead of pre-stratification, (c) estimates independent of changing concepts of merchantability or accessibility and (d) accounting for all sources of error (sample plots, volume tables, measurement error). The main problems concern (a) use of proper formulae to calculate error due to sample plots that take into account the basic sampling design, (b) expression of the volume tables and what the proper formulae are for estimating their error, (c) use of proper formulae to combine the error from these two sources, (d) steps to keep down the measurement error and (e) use of the theory of "sampling with partial replacement" so as to have an efficient design.