Abstract

RIANO MELO, Orlando  and  LIZARAZO, Iván. Estimating the volume of the wood of trees through the unique taper polynomial. Colomb. for. [online]. 2017, vol.20, n.1, pp.55-62. ISSN 0120-0739.  https://doi.org/10.14483/udistrital.jour.colomb.for.2017.1.a05.

Estimating the volume of wood from trees is an expensive, time-consuming and error-prone task. Traditional methods use mathematical models that need to be matched to existing species and specific areas using a case by case approach. Such methods have high operating and environmental cost, as several trees in the plantation are cut down. This article presents an alternative model to quantify the volume of a tree, which uses a single polynomial, which requires not felling the tree, which is relatively quick and inexpensive with good accuracy, and can be extended to estimate the trade volume of the plantation. To this end, the proposed method is described mathematically and its results compared with those obtained for five ideal methods described by FAO (1980). Results show that the polynomial method has a maximum relative error that does not exceed 1.6 % in any case and allows calculating tree’s diameter at a given height and height for a given diameter.

Keywords : taper function; profile; volume.

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