The use of tree crown variables in over-bark diameter and volume prediction models

doi:10.3832/ifor0878-007

The use of tree crown variables in over-bark diameter and volume prediction models

Ramazan Özçelik⁽¹⁾, Maria J Diamantopoulou⁽²⁾ , John R Brooks⁽³⁾

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 7, Issue 3, Pages 132-139 (2014)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0878-007
Published: Jan 13, 2014 - Copyright © 2014 SISEF

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Linear and nonlinear crown variable functions for 173 Brutian pine (Pinus brutia Ten.) trees were incorporated into a well-known compatible volume and taper equation to evaluate their effect in model prediction accuracy. In addition, the same crown variables were also incorporated into three neural network (NN) types (Back-Propagation, Levenberg-Marquardt and Generalized Regression Neural Networks) to investigate their applicability in over-bark diameter and stem volume predictions. The inclusion of crown ratio and crown ratio with crown length variables resulted in a significant reduction of model sum of squared error, for all models. The incorporation of the crown variables to these models significantly improved model performance. According to results, non-linear regression models were less accurate than the three types of neural network models tested for both over-bark diameter and stem volume predictions in terms of standard error of the estimate and fit index. Specifically, the generated Levenberg-Marquardt Neural Network models outperformed the other models in terms of prediction accuracy. Therefore, this type of neural network model is worth consideration in over-bark diameter and volume prediction modeling, which are some of the most challenging tasks in forest resources management.

Keywords

Crown Variables, Taper, Back-Propagation ANNs, Levenberg-Marquardt ANNs, Generalized Regression Neural Networks

Authors’ address

(1)

Faculty of Forestry, Süleyman Demirel University, East Campus, TR-32260, Isparta (Turkey)

(2)

Faculty of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, GR-54124 Thessaloniki (Greece)

(3)

Division of Forestry and Natural Resources, West Virginia University, 322 Percival Hall, 26506-6125 Morgantown (WV - USA)

Corresponding author

Maria J Diamantopoulou
papamich@agro.auth.gr

Citation

Özçelik R, Diamantopoulou MJ, Brooks JR (2014). The use of tree crown variables in over-bark diameter and volume prediction models. iForest 7: 132-139. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0878-007

Academic Editor

Luca Salvati

Paper history

Received: Nov 12, 2012
Accepted: Aug 08, 2013

First online: Jan 13, 2014
Publication Date: Jun 02, 2014
Publication Time: 5.27 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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