ProtoAIM - Prototyping an Enhanced Plot Design for future Advanced Inventorying and Monitoring for the Swiss forest

The Advanced Inventorying and Monitoring for the Swiss forest (Swiss AIM) wants to make the existing large-scale infrastructures (e.g. Swiss NFI; LWF) more dynamic and responsive to current and predicted environmental challenges. Based on a sub-set of NFI plots, it will offer a collaborative conceptual and operational framework to support data collection, analysis, interpretation and modelling. An enhanced design for the NFI plots is necessary for the foreseen augmented series of measurements (incl. automated ones), collection of environmental specimens and analysis (e.g., soil, tree cores) needed to respond to prioritized research questions, and to prevent bias on the representativenes of the NFI plots. This project intends to (i) explore theoretical and practical options for enhanced plot design, (ii) carry out explorative field tests, and (iii) set-up three-five prototype plots for further operational testing and demonstration. (Photo: Swiss Forest in Pictures, www.lfi.ch).