Recursive diameter prediction for calculating merchantable volume of eucalyptus clones using Multilayer Perceptron

A very common problem in forestry is the realization of the forest inventory. The forest inventory is very important because it allows the trading of medium- and long-term timber to be extracted. On completion , the inventory is necessary to measure different diameters and total height to calculate their volumes. However, due to the high number of trees and their heights, these measurements are an extremely time consuming and expensive. In this work, a new approach to predict recursively diameters of eucalyptus trees by means of Multilayer Perceptron artificial neural networks is presented. By taking only three diameter measures at the base of the tree, diameters are predicted recursively until they reach the value of 4 cm, with no previous knowledge of total tree height. The training was conducted with only 10% of the total trees planted site, and the remaining 90% of total trees were used for testing. The Smalian method was used with the predicted diameters to calculate merchantable tree volumes. To check the performance of the model, all experiments were compared with the least square polynomial approximator and the diameters and volumes estimates with both methods were compared with the actual values measured. The performance of the proposed model was satisfactory when predicted diameters and volumes are compared to actual ones.

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