Timber Cruise - Volume Estimation

Volume Estimation

• Stocking - a quantitative measure of the area occupied by trees relative to an optimum or desired level of density
• Stand Density Index - a measure of the stocking of a stand of trees based on the number of trees per unit area and DBH of the tree of average basal area
• Volume table - a chart based on volume equations that uses correlations between certain aspects of a tree to estimate the standing volume
• Stand density management diagram - model that uses current stand density to project future stand composition

• Volume can be calculated from the metrics recorded in a plot sample. For example if a tree was measured to be 20m tall and with a DBH of 19 cm using previous measured tree data a volume could be approximated according to species. Such a table has been constructed by Josef Pollanschütz in Austria.

Volume of tree = BA X h x f pollanschutz

So f pollanschütz would be derived from the table and is properly called the Form Factor.

To scale this up to a hectare level the result would have to be multiplied by the number of trees of that size. This is called the blow up factor.