USING A HAND-HELD ELECTRONIC LASER-BASED SURVEY INSTRUMENT FOR STEM MAPPING

An evaluation of a hand-held electronic laser-based surveying instrume nt was carried out for stem mapping of trees in forest plantations. Re sults obtained from field tests of the hand-held device and a standard surveyor's total station are compared. Theoretical and practical work ing distances for a specified accuracy level are presented and discuss ed, The maximum theoretical working distance to maintain an accuracy o f 25 cm at the 99% confidence level is 47.7 m, and the practical worki ng distance on a plot with a tree spacing of 2.4 m and with a slope of 25 degrees is approximately 20 m.