Tools and Data
Tools and applications are another way the Southern Research Station brings you science you can use. Our research scientists and staff not only publish in peer reviewed journals, but also produce software and applications to help deliver our cutting edge science.
We provide an interactive software suite that generate tables and maps of forest statistics (Forest Inventory Data Online), a near-real-time satellite based overview of potential forest disturbances (ForWarn), and even a mobile app for identifying invasive plants.
The tools, models and datasets of the Southern Research Station support land and resource managers with the best available science they need to effectively and efficiently sustain the south's forests.
ArcGIS Story Map
CRiSPE represents a framework for centralizing research being done by the Southern Research Station on the restoration and management of southern pine ecosystems. This story map provides an overview of unit and personnel locations, unit research, experimental forests, and southern pine ranges.
ArcGIS Story Map
The storymap tells the story of the new North American Forest Database (NAFD), developed by scientists from Mexico, the U. S., and Canada to manage forest inventory data and enable consistent continental-scale forest assessment.
This model allows the user to simulate stand dynamics of planted longleaf pine forests under different management scenarios.
ArcGIS Story Map
This story map demonstrates the variety of treatments involved in the program, depicting the more than 1 million acres treated by federal, state and private landowners over a 13-year period. In addition to the treatments, the maps show the 2012 Southern Pine Beetle Hazard-Rating Map created by the Forest Health Technology Enterprise team.
A software tool for processing data from thermal dissipation (Granier-type) sap flux probes. The program provides a graphical user interface for data QA/QC and establishing the zero-flow, dTmax “baseline.” Available as a stand-alone application for Windows or open-source MATLAB scripts.
ArcGIS Story Map
This site contains annual updates from the USDA Forest Service Forest Inventory and Analysis program (FIA). FIA annual updates provide current estimates of the extent and condition of forest resources for each state in the U.S.
ForestCrowns calculates canopy transparency (or light transmittance) for digital images taken with standard or fisheye (hemispherical) camera lenses. Specific areas of the photograph can also be targeted to obtain transparency estimates of individual tree crowns.
A software tool to assist urban foresters, arborists, and community volunteers with assessing and monitoring urban tree crowns. The program analyzes a single, side-view digital photograph of a tree and computes the following crown metrics: height, diameter, ratio, volume, density, and transparency.
The Forest Health Advisory System highlights potential future activities of more than 40 major forest pests and pathogens across 1.2 billion acres of U.S. forestland. The advisory includes background information on the survey status of the land, information about the most prevalent pests, potential risks and threats, layered maps showing potential loss of trees due to pests, and possible management strategies in relation to specific threats.
Maps and Datasets
The Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative and the Forest Service Eastern Forest Environmental Threat Assessment Center are releasing products from the first phase of an ongoing study assessing benefits of and risks to the region’s ecosystem services. A wealth of data, maps and other knowledge on ecosystem services and risks to their sustainability are now available.
ArcGIS Story Map
A story map that allows users to interactively chart the ebb and flow of forest products across the southern states. Consists of FIA data loaded onto the Esri ArcGIS Online platform.
ForWarn is a vegetation change recognition and tracking system that uses high-frequency, moderate resolution satellite data. It provides near real-time change maps for the continental United States that are updated every eight days. These maps show the effects of disturbances such as wildfires, wind storms, insects, diseases, and human-induced disturbances in addition to departures from normal seasonal greenness caused by weather.
The Design and Analysis Toolkit for Inventory and Monitoring (DATIM) is a suite of software tools used for designing inventory and monitoring programs and analyzing the results of those programs. DATIM provides four modules: an analysis tool for inventory and monitoring (ATIM) used for creating tables; a spatial intersection tool (SIT), a design tool for inventory and monitoring plans (DTIM), and a data compilation system (DCS) to add FVS attributes to DATIM datasets.
A spreadsheet calculator designed to help you compare alternative methods of moving biomass from a forest to wood-using facility.
Excel spreadsheet for estimating total system cost based on stand characteristics, felling, skidding, processing, loading, roads and hauling, and operational factors.
CRAFT is a planning framework and user-friendly, Web-based support system that helps natural resource managers address uncertainties inherent in land management decisions. CRAFT offers a structured, simplified approach to determine objectives and calculates risks and tradeoffs associated with different management scenarios.
Maps that pinpoint locations where climate change pressures are likely to be most intense; the maps depict future suitable habitat ranges for North American tree species within the U.S. and across the globe. Using projections of future climate in combination with the concept of fine-scale ecoregions—land areas that share similar environmental characteristics, such as soils, topography, and climate variables—ForeCASTS can ultimately be used to assess the risk to genetic integrity of North American forest tree populations.
A web-based assessment and reporting tool designed to integrate the most current climate change science with forest planning to meet the needs of a variety of users. TACCIMO fits within the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process and can be used in land management plan revision, environmental assessments, environmental impact statements, and reasonable alternatives.
A web-based planning tool to help natural resource planners and managers evaluate the balances and tradeoffs between water availability and carbon sequestration, and to support informed decision making in light of changing environmental conditions. WaSSI can predict how climate, land cover, and human population change may impact water availability and carbon sequestration at the watershed level and across the lower 48 United States, Mexico, Rwanda, and Burundi.
A zip-compressed file with the source and executable code for the slash pine plantation growth and yield simulator whose model is described in Research Paper SO-264, Growth and Yield Predictions for Thinned and Unthinned Slash Pine Plantations on Cutover Sites in the West Gulf Region.