Date of Graduation
2004
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Type
MS
Committee Chair
John R. Brooks
Abstract
Basal area per acre and the sum of the merchantable heights on “in-trees” were investigated for use as auxiliary variables in several double sampling inventories. Merchantable height has been suggested as an alternative auxiliary variable to take advantage of its higher correlation with volume and greater precision in volume estimates without a substantial increase measurement time. In addition to validating past research, this study further investigated the use of merchantable height as an auxiliary variable through double sampling simulations conducted at various first/second phase sampling ratios. When compared to inventories where board foot volume is known on every point, bias in mean estimation as measured by RMSE ranged from 0.9% to 2.3% for MHT and 2.5% to 7.5% for BA. Estimates of standard errors using MHT were closer to that assumed as the true sampling error (differences ranged from -0.07% to 4.44% for MHT, and 5.55% to 81.25% for BA).
Recommended Citation
Bailes, Wesley Wayne, "A comparison of basal area and merchantable height as auxiliary variables for double sampling with point sampling." (2004). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD). 10790.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/10790