Tasks of Forest Environmental Monitoring
Data collection is the central core of monitoring and inventory. In addition to experimental plot maintenance and sampling, terrestrial surveys are the main focus. Remote sensing and modeling products increasingly complement these observations.
Structure
Forest environmental monitoring is part of the International Cooperative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests (ICP-Forests), which operates within the framework of the Geneva Air Pollution Convention (UN-ECE). Data from forest environmental monitoring is incorporated into evaluations at the federal and European level.
Through inventories, a regular overview of the spatial and temporal variation of forest condition in relation to anthropogenic and natural stress factors (air pollution, weather factors) is to be obtained. For this purpose, a systematic grid of sampling points is spread across Europe's forests, at which the health status of forest trees is observed or measured at regular intervals based on crown condition (Forest Condition Survey, WZE), the condition of forest soils coupled with a forest nutrition inventory (BZE), as well as forest structure in terms of tree species, age, timber volumes and other parameters (State or Federal Forest Inventory). The temporal rhythm of repeated surveys depends on the expected rate of change, with annual surveys of crown condition (WZE), 5-10 year repeated surveys of forest structures (BWI), and 10-20 year periods of soil condition surveys (BZE). The spatial resolution depends on the required accuracy of the statistical statement. For Europe, a basic grid of 16 x 16 km for all inventories is sufficient, while in the Federal Republic the basic grid for the BZE is densified to 8 x 8 km. The BWI operates on a 4 x 4 km grid, which is further densified at the federal state level (LWI).
Through intensive observation of a series of selected Level II permanent observation plots of important forest ecosystems, the relationships between forest condition and environmental factors are to be better understood and their development in Europe investigated. Together with results from the inventories, assessments of the stress and resilience of forest ecosystems can be made more reliably and quickly to identify forestry's scope of action for ensuring sustainable development and to substantiate requirements for maintaining tolerable environmental stresses and for estimating necessary adaptations to climate change.
The focus of interest is not area representativeness, but rather the functionality of the respective ecosystem type that is important for the regions and Europe. The intensive observations include material and energetic influencing factors in the investigations and have a correspondingly high temporal resolution of typically weeks to hours. The number of observation plots is limited due to the scope of the investigation; in addition to the selection of forest ecosystems essential to the region, the climatic gradient present in the region as well as differentiated soil conditions also play a role.
The European Commission has supported the development of forest environmental monitoring within the framework of various programs, most recently with the project Further Development and Implementation of an EU-level Forest Monitoring System (FutMon) under Life+. With the FutMon project, European forest monitoring could be qualified in Brandenburg as in 24 participating European countries.