An operational UAV-based approach for stand-level assessment of soil disturbance after forest harvesting
Journal article, Peer reviewed
Published version
Permanent lenke
http://hdl.handle.net/11250/2498347Utgivelsesdato
2018-01-16Metadata
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Originalversjon
Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research. 2018, 33 (4), 387-396. 10.1080/02827581.2017.1418421Sammendrag
The effectiveness of generating virtual transects on unmanned aerial vehicle-derived orthomosaics was evaluated in estimating the extent of soil disturbance by severity class. Combinations of 4 transect lengths (5–50 m) and five sampling intensities (1–20 transects per ha) were used in assessing traffic intensity and the severity of soil disturbance on six post-harvest, cut-to-length (CTL) clearfell sites. In total, 15% of the 33 ha studied showed some trace of vehicle traffic. Of this, 63% of was categorized as light (no visible surface disturbance). Traffic intensity varied from 787 to 1256 m ha−1, with a weighted mean of 956 m ha−1, approximately twice the geometrical minimum achievable with CTL technology under perfect conditions. An overall weighted mean of 4.7% of the total site area was compromised by severe rutting. A high sampling intensity, increasing with decreasing incidence of soil disturbance, is required if mean estimation error is to be kept below 20%. The paper presents a methodology that can be generally applied in forest management or in similar land-use evaluations.