“Total-Balancing” an inventory: A method for unbiased inventories using highly biased non-sample data at variable scales

Authors

  • Kim Iles Kim Iles & Associates, Nanaimo, B.C., Canada

Keywords:

Unbiased methods, total-balancing, data adjustment, forest inventory, sampling methods

Abstract

I describe here a method that can provide unbiased estimates and sampling errors with increasingly precise polygon information from non-sample sources that are often free and readily available. This method is extremely flexible, and it appears to be in line with the main trend of modern sampling – you first estimate using any information available, and then you sample to adjust those estimates. At later dates, further readjustment can be done at will, as long as the total is held constant.

Author Biography

  • Kim Iles, Kim Iles & Associates, Nanaimo, B.C., Canada
    Kim Iles is an expert in sampling and forest inventory and inventor of many new statistical estimators. He got his B.S. in Forest Management and M.Sc. in Forest Biometrics, from Oregon State University, and Ph.D. Forest Biometrics, from University of British Columbia in 1979. He was the Biometrician and Head of Growth and Yield Dept., MacMillan Bloedel Ltd., Nanaimo, B.C. for 12 years until 1991 and a consultant since then. He is the author of a textbook on Forest Inventory (now in second printing), and he was the principle inventory design consultant for the British Columbia Provincial Inventory design (this inventory covered an area of 100,000,000 hectares). Kim's specialties of Variable Plot Sampling and 3P sampling are the dominant inventory systems used in the North America. He has taught inventory techniques to several thousand professional cruisers on 3 continents, and is the major contributor to the Cruising and Inventory Newsletter published by John Bell Associates. He has been a member of several committees of national standing, and has developed and introduced a number of innovations in cruising systems in North America.
International Journal of Mathematical and Computational Forstry and Natural-Resource Sciences

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Published

2009-02-28

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 1: MCFNS February 28, 2009

Section

Sampling and Natural Resource Inventories

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How to Cite

Iles, K. (2009). “Total-Balancing” an inventory: A method for unbiased inventories using highly biased non-sample data at variable scales. Mathematical and Computational Forestry & Natural-Resource Sciences (MCFNS), 1(1), 10-13 (4). https://mcfns.com/index.php/Journal/article/view/1.2

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