Spatial Forest simulation to obtain Forest Statistics (Case Study: Gorazbon District of Kheyrud Forest)

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Geographic Information System (GIS) is one of the most important tools to prepare forest management plan and, in general, as a tool for management, sustainable logging and future planning based on the derived statistical data from forested regions. The purpose of this study was spatial simulation of trees in forest to have in hand an example of an uneven aged forest (simulated forest). By means of the simulated forest, it is possible to test different statistical methods and various management activities before they are carried out in real world. The study area, Gorazbon, is a district of Kheyrud research-educational forest, with 1001 hectares area located in East of Nowshahr city. The inventory was implemented using systematic random sampling. Afterwards, trees were randomly distributed within the compartments of this district, using the results of full callipering inventory with Arc GIS 9.3 software and forest was simulated. In this stage, the inventory process was implemented in simulated forest similar to the inventory of real forest. These results were compared with the results of the ground inventory, and no statistically significant difference was found in any of repetitions. Consequently, it can infer that the simulated forest is remarkably applied to the forest inventory implementations. Furthermore, it is a functional tool to provide forest management plans of Kheyrud forest. To say in other words, this makes possible to test different methods of forest inventory and also type and dimensions of plot and inventory net unquestionably.

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