Statement of Work Strunk Publication for Savannah River Forest Estate Model for Lidar Inventory 20240718.docx

US Department of Agriculture (USDA)

Statement of Work

Contents

Project

Publication for Savannah River Forest Estate Model for Lidar Inventory

General Information

1.0 Scope of Work

The project is a continuation of the analysis completed in the project “2023 Forest Estate Modeling from Lidar Forest Inventory and Continuous Forest Inventory (CFI) plots”. All of the initial work was completed, but we would like the vendor to help to prepare a research manuscript from that analysis.

The vendor will prepare publication quality tables and figures for the results section of a manuscript as well as the corresponding narrative, vendor will provide a draft section of the methods, and a draft of the discussion.

Vendor has provided us with analyses regarding the suitability of lidar inventory to serve as an operational forest inventory with respect to current yields, site index, and optimal growth and yield projections. Lidar forest inventory was compared with plot-based traditional inventory at plot and stand scales. In cooperation with PNW scientist, we would are requesting the vendor to contribute results towards a scientific manuscript. The vendor will transition the report quality findings geared towards breadth rather than journal quality publication into publication quality items. PNW scientist will work with the vendor to prepare and submit the resulting manuscript. Finalization and submission of the manuscript is the responsibility of the scientist and not the vendor, except to the degree that the vendor wishes to contribute beyond the contracted services.

2.0 Background

A lidar forest inventory was developed by PNW USFS VMaRS for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina between 2018 and 2021. However, there is further need to evaluate future site conditions. The methods and mechanism to do this are fairly well documented for a traditional plot-based stand inventory. However, the methods to implement a forest estate model for a lidar inventory system are not as clear. In cooperation with a forestry services vendor we evaluated the suitability of lidar to support current yields, site index, growth projections, and management optimization. I wish to transition our findings into a manuscript and leverage our analyses from a previous analysis.

Contractor Requirements

3.0 Technical Requirements / Tasks

1) Extract tabular results from FVS projection and site index analysis for plots and stands

2) Convert raw tabular results to elegant manuscript quality tables and figures

3) Prepare initial narrative describing inferences from tables and figures with respect to the capacity for lidar inventory to contribute to growth projection and / or site index analyses for operational forestry purposes

4) Prepare summary of vendor methods in format suitable for methods section of manuscript

5) Contribute to discussion section of manuscript

6) All original code, raw tables, formatted tables, original images, analysis results will be provided to PNW research collaborator

7) Images and will be provided with sufficient resolution and in the format suitable for journal submission (e.g., .tif with lossless .zip compression with greater than 600 DPI and greater than 6 x 6 inches for a single axis graph).

4.0 Government Furnished

List any government-furnished support, data, property or facilities. Describe government responsibility for reviewing and approving reports and final products generated under the contract. If the contractor will require access to government facilities, identify the facility location and specific area. Identify any federal holidays or other times when access may be restricted.

The government will furnish all forest inventory data used in this analysis:

1. Site index related data

a. Site index plot records (x, y, height, dbh, species, age from cores)

b. 2008 and 2019 raw lidar point clouds and / or site-wide canopy surface heights

c. Soils, topography, and other environmental variables that should be considered for site index and age modeling

d. Current site-wide site index rasters (from Parresol et.al. 20??)

e. 2009 lidar inventory field measurements

f. Site management history – to infer changes in age on site index plots (or other means to infer disturbance of site index plots)

2. Forest estate model related data

a. Tree list field measurements for CFI plot grid

b. Growth measurement plots

c. Plot-level compilation of tree lists from 2018 lidar inventory

d. Stand-level lidar inventory from 2018 lidar inventory

e. Stand-level lidar inventory tree lists from 2018 lidar inventory

f. GIS layers for stands and plots and blocks and restrictions (no harvest)

g. Draft FVS KCP files for 6 management scenarios

h. Threshold for even-flow constraint (maximum allowed deviation from the average)

i. Product size class specifications for merchandizing

j. Product value estimates associated with product classes

k. Thinning and planting costs

l. Any other costs that should be included in analysis

3. (vendor generated) Analysis results for growth projections, optimization, site index

5.0 Deliverables / Schedule

6.0 Travel

NONE

7.0 Contractor’s Key Personnel

Contractor shall assign a Forest Biometrician (PhD in forestry required) with five (5) years of experience as well as with the following additional qualifications: At least three (3) years of experience with growth and yield modeling, at least 3 years of experience with forest estate modeling, and experience using FVS growth modeling software (3+ years including completion of at least 5 projects using this software), and be familiar with KCP files, a configuration file for FVS forest growth modelling software. Forest biometrician must be familiar with basic forestry tasks such as GIS mapping and spatial operations (5+ years) and forest inventory computations (5+ years). Forest biometrician shall be familiar with lidar processing and analysis.

8.0 Security Requirements

NONE, Not Applicable

9.0 Data Rights

NONE, Not Applicable

10.0 Section 508 – Electronic and Information Technology Standards

Not applicable. No information technology is being purchased.

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