Applications of the United States Forest Inventory and Analysis dataset: a review and future directions

Abstract

The United States Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) program has been monitoring national forest resources in the United States for over 80 years; presented here is a synthesis of research applications for FIA data. A review of over 180 publications that directly utilize FIA data is broken down into broad categories of application and further organized by methodologies and niche research areas. The FIA program provides the most comprehensive forest database currently available, with permanent plots distributed across all forested lands and ownerships in the United States and plot histories dating back to the early 1930s. While the data can be incredibly powerful, users need to understand the spatial resolution of ground-based plots and the nature of the FIA plot coordinate system must be applied correctly. As the need for accurate assessments of national forest resources continues to be a global priority, particularly related to carbon dynamics and climate impacts, such national forest inventories will continue to be an important source of information on the status of and trends in these ecosystems. The advantages and limitations of FIA’s national forest inventory data are highlighted, and suggestions for further expansion of the FIA program are provided.

rFIA: An R package for estimation of forest attributes with the US Forest Inventory and Analysis database

“…Exact coordinates of FIA ground plots are not available in the public version of the FIA Database to protect privacy rights of private land owners and preserve the ecological integrity of ground plots (Tinkham et al, 2018;McRoberts et al, 2005a). Plot locations are randomly displaced up to 1 km from their true locations (i.e., "fuzzed") and the coordinates of up to 20% of plots on private land in each county are exchanged (i.e., "swapped") (Bechtold et al, 2005;Tinkham et al, 2018).…”

“…Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) is a United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service program with the goal of monitoring and projecting changes in forests across the United States (US) (USDA Forest Service, 2019b). The program collects, publishes, and analyzes data describing the extent, condition, volume, growth, and use of trees from all land ownerships in the nation, with some records dating back to the early 1930s (Tinkham et al, 2018;Smith, 2002). In 1999, the FIA program established a systematic grid of permanent ground plots that are evenly divided into panels measured in a continuous cycle, allowing spatially unbiased estimates of forest attributes to be computed on an annual basis (Gillespie, 1999;Smith, 2002).…”

“…The primary limitation for individuals using FIA data in their own analyses is the complex sample design, database structure, and Structured Query Language used by the FIA program (Tinkham et al, 2018;Kromroy et al, 2008). FIA data are publicly available in several formats (e.g., FIA DataMart) and estimation is facilitated through online tools (e.g., EVALIDator) (USDA Forest Service, 2019a; Pugh et al, 2018) and a non-public R package, FIESTA (Frescino et al, 2015).…”

Long-Term Impacts of Fuel Treatment Placement with Respect to Forest Cover Type on Potential Fire Behavior across a Mountainous Landscape

“…We used USA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data [26,27] and a 10 m digital elevation model (The National Map. Available online: https://nationalmap.gov) to develop an analysis landscape consisting of drier southerly aspects dominated by ponderosa pine, with relatively low productivity, tree regeneration rates and initial fuel loading; and wetter northerly aspects dominated by interior Douglas-fir, that have relatively greater productivity, regeneration rates and initial fuel loading.…”

Multi-Scale Remote Sensing-Assisted Forest Inventory: A Glimpse of the State-of-the-Art and Future Prospects

“…Forest inventory practices, in particular on the classical basis of design-based surveys, have been long considered as essential sources of quantitative and qualitative information for current forest resources management. In addition, they are also deliberated as essential inputs to future projections of forest status, health and services [1]. As previously stated by [2], scheming and implementation of any future strategy for forest management is essentially based on postulating the availability of accurate and unbiased estimations on basic forest inventory attributes on multiple spatial scales ranging from single tree to forest stand, i.e., common management unit, and even to larger domains of landscape, statewide or country-wide levels.…”