Eucalyptus spp. volume determined through geospatial interpolation

Abstract

Planning and managing forest resources is fundamental for increasing the productivity of forest products and by­products. This study evaluates the use of the ordinary kriging interpolator in the estimation of standing wood vol­ume in Eucalyptus spp. plantations in Paragominas city, Para State, Brazil. For this, we used data from the precut forest inventory, processed by the ordinary kriging method. Measurements took place in 27 georeferenced fields, with plots of 504 m², where trees were rigorously cubed. Geostatistical modeling was performed using ordinary kriging (spherical semivariogram model) with isotropic and anisotropic interpolators, seeking to map the volume of the area. To this end, experimental semivariograms were obtained through the Geostatistical Analyst tool of ArcGIS 10.1 software. Interpolation presented satisfactory results regarding plot volume mapping, in which the average volume fitted by ordinary kriging was statistically similar to the average volume obtained by the forest inventory, 11.3517 m³ and 11.3842 m³, respectively, showing efficiency with an adjusted coefficient of determina­tion of 0.94. The use of ordinary kriging interpolation proved to be effective in plot volume estimation in the forest stands under study.