TY - JOUR AU - Martin Nieuwenhuis AU - Liam Malone AU - Frances McHugh AU - Traolach Layton PY - 1999/11/01 Y2 - 2024/03/29 TI - A Management oriented study of the development and evaluation of a pre-harvest inventory and cross-cutting simulation procedure to maximise value recovery. JF - Irish Forestry JA - IF VL - IS - SE - Articles DO - UR - https://journal.societyofirishforesters.ie/index.php/forestry/article/view/9878 AB - The development and evaluation of a pre-harvest inventory and value maximisation decision-support system for sawmill wood procurement is described. The system allows procurement managers to select the most suitable stands for tendering and subsequently to maximise the value of the logs produced during harvesting operations. The developed system consists of a generic taper equation, a stand-specific dbh/height model, and a computer simulation programme which provides detailed information on the potential volume, log count and diameter distributions for different log assortment specifications. The system was developed using data from five Sitka spruce (Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr.) clearfell sites in west Munster. The system was evaluated using seven data sets, three validation sub-sets from data sets used for the development of the taper equation and the dbh/height model, and four data sets from new sites, including two Sitka spruce clearfells, a Sitka spruce thinning and a Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karsten) clearfell. The evaluation process showed that the developed procedure produced accurate results for a wide range of stand types, as long as sufficiently large data sets are used. ER -