The use of laser dendrometer in tropical forests: applications to forest management in Amazonia

Abstract

This paper evaluated the accuracy and applicability of a kind of dendrometer, that uses laser technology, to measure heights and diameters of tropical forest trees. The dendrometer was compared with ocular estimations on commercial height measurements (N=65). On bole diameter measurements, this equipment was compared with girth tape (N=53). Further, it was evaluated the number of times that was not possible to measure height and diameter by each method. To commercial height, the results showed that did not have significant difference between data measured by the compared methods. The dendrometer applicability at height measurements was restricted to 51,2% of surveyed trees, while it was possible to do diameter measurement with this equipment on 97% of surveyed trees. The dendrometer presented acceptable accuracy at diameter measurements. The dendrometer presented good complementation with the compared methods on diameter and height measurements, combining accuracy and versatility. The results of this study showed that the use of this kind of instrument has potential to meaningfully improve the decision took about operational planning of a forest company, becoming this way, an advisable investment to that companies that fetch to practice forest management in a discerning way in native tropical forests.