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Crown closure Forest Measurement and Modelling. |
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![]() Crown closure is used as a measure of stand density and competition. It may also be used in equations that predict stand volume. Crown closure may be measured on aerial photographs or other remotely sensed images. Often, stands are grouped into classes after the photograph is compared with standard percentage cover images. For example, the SFRI (Natural Resources and Environment, 1999) classified the forests of Victoria into six classes:
Crown closure can be determined by measuring the crown sectional area of all trees in a stand and dividing by the plot area (and expressed as a percentage). This estimate will be greater than estimates based on aerial photography when tree crown overlap. An estimate of crown closure can be determined from a line (or line intersect) sample. If a randomly oriented line is located (fully) within the stand, then the percentage of that line that falls immediately below a tree crown is an unbiased estimate of the stand crown closure. Inoue (1999) summarises a proof for the line sample as well as point sample estimates of crown closure. |
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[crownclo.htm] Revision: 6/1999 |