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Realized and potential efficiency for post-stratified estimation in a national forest inventory

Realized and potential efficiency for post-stratified estimation in a national forest inventory

Authors :
James A. Westfall
John W. Coulston
Andrew J. Lister
Ronald E. McRoberts
Source :
Canadian Journal of Forest Research. 51:1450-1457
Publication Year :
2021
Publisher :
Canadian Science Publishing, 2021.

Abstract

Post-stratification is often used to increase the precision of estimates arising from large-area forest inventories with plots established at permanent locations. Remotely sensed data and associated spatial products are often used for developing the post-stratification, which offers a mechanism to increase precision for less cost than increasing the sample size. While important variance reductions have been shown from post-stratification, it remains unknown where observed gains lie along the continuum of possible gains. This information is needed to determine whether efforts to further improve post-stratification outcomes are warranted. In this study, two types of optimal post-stratification were compared with typical production-based post-stratifications to estimate the magnitude of remaining gains possible. Although the optimal post-stratifications were derived using methods inappropriate for operational usage, the results indicated that substantial further increases in precision for estimates of both forest area and total tree biomass could be obtained with better post-stratifications. The potential gains differed by the attribute being estimated, the population being studied, and the number of strata. Practitioners seeking to optimize post-stratification face challenges, such as evaluation of numerous auxiliary data sources, temporal misalignment between plot observations and remotely sensed data acquisition, and spatial misalignment between plot locations and remotely sensed data due to positional errors in both data types.

Details

ISSN :
12086037 and 00455067
Volume :
51
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
Canadian Journal of Forest Research
Accession number :
edsair.doi...........17ef70a2af4cbde436b7d9c164701832
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1139/cjfr-2020-0379